Dragon Overlord
by Tale master redux
Summary: It was a cliche start to a cliche story. A boy gets a powerful artefact, finds a guide/master and goes on a journey to fulfill his destiny. Well that happened to me and now I have to fill some very big shoes left by my predecessors and carve and empire in the very heart of the multiverse. After all Evil always finds a way and I, was going to be a Harem King. It's good to be King.
1. Chapter 1

**So this is another thing that I wrote. Yeah it is getting a bit out of hand but what can you do My Pen name literally says it all Tale Master. So yeah I have a lot of ideas**

 **Fair warning this fic in an alternate take on the traditional Overlord style fics with a lot of twist and turns, Because Evil will Always find a Way.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DxD, Overlord, Fate Stay Night and Type-Moon and any other franchise that may appear in this fic. They belong to their rightful owners, except for any OCs that may appear in this fic.**

 **Edit: 19-11-2016**

 **Added some few scenes and some extra dialogues too.**

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 **Chapter 1**

Issei Hyoudou, age 16, student of Kuoh Academy and a boy with a healthy interest in the opposite gender, don't let the rumours make you believe otherwise, after all I am at the age where I am supposed to be hunting for a girlfriend or girlfriends, in my case as my dream is to be a 'Harem King'.

And guess what folks, the gods above have even given me the means to become one or to be more precise gave me a job that comes with the side bonus of creating a harem, a job that I got after buying an old gauntlet in a trinket shop.

What was my job that basically gives me the right to create a harem, you say? Why, my job is to become the next 'Overlord', master of Evil and vanquisher of good, though the latter two are something that I can toss on to my successor. Currently I am just required to create a kingdom and find artefacts that belonged to my predecessors. So yeah, being evil was just a personal decision.

I freaking love this job.

I even got a wise ass minion, who was also my advisor, named Gnarl. He was the one who was teaching me the ropes of becoming a proper Overlord.

But that was not the best part. The best part was that the 'Overlord Gauntlet' that allows me to use magical spells had given me another special ability namely the 'Gamer' ability from the Gamer Manhwa, which basically meant that I was going to be a Broken as hell character. Once I figure out the mechanics that is. One thing was sure it was not like the one Han Jee-Han had gotten in the manhwa, though it did have some similarities.

Currently my current 'Stat Sheet' looked like this.

 **Name:** Issei Hyoudou **Age:** 16 **  
Level: lv.1 EXP: 0%  
Class**: Player **Race:** Human  
 **Title** : 'Overlord' **  
HP: 300 HP Regen: 0.8 HP/sec  
MP: 110 MP Regen: 0.4 MP/sec  
STR*: 8  
AGI: 5  
INT: 4  
SKILL POINTS: 10  
Resources: 10000**

 **Skills:**

 **[Overlord's Mind]- Passive- MAX LEVEL**

 **Description: Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through in most circumstances. Allows a peaceful state of the mind, grants immunity to psychological and metal status effects prevents possession.**

 **[Overlord's Body]- Passive- MAX LEVEL**

 **Description: Grant's a body similar to the ancient Overlords. Pain form damage does not last more than a few seconds. Sleeping restores HP, MP and heals all temporary status effects. Also grants pseudo-immortality in the form of eternal youth.**

 **[Multi-verse Adaption]- Passive- MAX LEVEL**

 **Description: This ability allows the user to adapt any knowledge and skills and magic found in the multiverse and use them without any repercussion.**

 **[Observe]- Active- Rank: 1/100 EXP: 9.0% MP cost: 1**

 **Description: A skill to observe, objects, situations and beings that allows the user to quickly gather information. The higher the skill, the greater the data obtained. The higher the level of skill, the grater the data obtained. The greater the amount of knowledge and insight the user has, the more information can be displayed.**

 **[Minion Creation] Rank-MAX Cost: Variable**

 **Description: Allows to Overlord to create Minions using resources available.**

Apart from the three skills, the stat sheet was quite bare and empty. I did not even have a guide to refer to, which could help me decode the secrets of the 'game'.

Gnarl was not helpful in the least, not even when he was supposed to be my advisor as even he did not know how the system worked, just that it worked and had made the past Overlords who had mastered it a forced to be reckoned with.

"You know Gnarl you never did mention how I was going to rebuild the Overlord Empire or how it even fell." I asked my minion.

The midget advisor stroked his beard in a manner that made me recall how some of the old man with beards would recall the good old days and what not.

"How you are going to rebuild your empire is up to you Master Hyoudou, seeing that the empire fell a very long time ago and almost all of its territories are now either lost forever or now inhabited by very powerful beings, which would crush you as easy as breathing the way you are now." Gnarl said as he told a little bit about the empire of my predecessors.

Well I had forgotten that I was going to have to get into fights with supernatural beings from myths and if what Gnarl was saying was true then it was going to be tough carving out my own kingdom. I guess I should just start small.

"As for how it fell, well alas even the greatest dynasties and empires, sadly, must come to an end someday." Gnarl sighed, no doubt thinking lost in memories about the time he must have looked after the empire. He was sensitive like that.

"First I am going to need minions, just like the ones my predecessors used. Then a base of operation to carry out my operations." I said making plans on how to create an empire. It was going to be damn hard creating an empire in the modern world but from what I can guess there are different worlds and dimensions different from mine. If Gnarl is able to get me in touch with one of the other worlds, I might be able to build up my empire without too much hassle and let my descendants worry about expanding. Which, come to think of it were going to be many given the Harem I was going to create, yeah I will have to create some rules on succession or create a big ass empire to divide it properly among them.

Oh boy, not even a day in and I am thinking about succession problems. I really am stuck with something really big, eh. This was going to get some use too.

"So any ideas Gnarl?" I asked my advisor.

"Well we could try to rebuild one of the old Overlord towers and use that as a base of operation but they are scattered all over the multiverse that it would be difficult to find one. After finding one we can use that as a base of operations. The downside is that the towers are quick to attract wandering heroes who will want to slay the latest evil but on the flipside the towers hold quite a lot of resources that may prove useful." Gnarl said inquisitively, stroking his beard.

"Okay well I will have to learn how to defend my territories sooner or later so it might be good to gather up the resources but we better locate multiples towers first so that we have some back up bases to fall back later on." It was a good plan and well the resources Gnarl was talking about could go on a long way too if we hit a jackpot.

"That is a good plan sire, I shall begin locating the towers and preparing a portal for our departure." Gnarl said bowing his head in deference.

"And the minions?"

"The Gauntlet should allow you to create new minions sire you will just have to select a basic form for the minions and the characteristics of the minions and you should be able to create your desired minion. It should have been obvious sire." Gnarl said no doubt pointing out to the skill list.

"Yes but I wanted to see if there was another way to create minions apart from this." I admitted, while I did have the skill needed to create a minion I wanted to see if there was another way or not. I did not know how much was the 10000 resources I had, as it could be range from ridiculously huge to being less than a yen.

"Well there are other ways, sire but I suspect that you won't like them, considering you disposition." Gnarl admitted looking at me intently as if asking me whether he should continue or not.

I motioned him to continue curious at what the methods were.

"We can use the life force of animals and humans to use as fuel to create new minions and replace lost one or even outright use their souls to create powerful ones and enhance existing ones." Gnarl said laying down the facts.

It was a good thing that my predecessors gave me the Overlord's Mind to process the information properly and letting me see the benefits and cons of the methods in a cold detached manner, instead of viewing them with disgust…Wait THAT WAS NOT A GOOD THING! IT WAS BAD WAY BAD! No wonder my predecessors were mostly evil, pragmatism was very cold hearted at its core.

"Well it looks like we won't be using that method." I finally commented after getting my thoughts in order.

"Well sire don't rule this method out yet, souls and life force of demons and supernatural creatures as great at creating minions once you filter them properly. In fact I would advise against using Human souls and life force as they are really inefficient in the long run." Gnarl added with a smile.

"You want me to go Demon-hunting?" I said quirking an eyebrow at the suggestion. It really seemed quite appealing now.

"Well who am I to stop you sire, if you want to go kill some demons, harvest their souls and their very essence and use it to increase your own powers and minions in the process. Its not like any one would miss them since they seem to infest all parts of the multiverse." Gnarl grinned, and it was not a toothy fun grin, but a bloodthirsty one.

"And it's not like I want to see them cower in fear of your name as you wade through their corpses plucking their moaning souls and use it to fuel to create your army. No sire, I really have no such intentions, No sire, none." Gnarl said bobbing his head in a sage like manner, yet his hands trembled in excitement at such a visage.

"Maybe later Gnarl." I said noncommittally, yeah I would do that much later on after getting some proper training. After all I was not Dante who could shrug of meteors and kill the king of hell, so no demon hunting for me in the near future for now.

"Now why don't you go and start searching for the towers. Inform me later when you can get us to the nearest one." I ordered, getting Gnarl out of his thoughts, he was really mumbling away some really graphic descriptions. He was truly without a doubt an evil bastard.

"Very well sire, by you leave." Gnarl said as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Seeing him leave I let my shoulders relax a bit, mulling over the order I had just given and the implications of it.

I really was doing this, weren't I?

I was really going to be a conqueror, an emperor, a king. When did life stop making sense again? This was really messed up.

Thinking about my dream I could not help but question my motivations for embarking on this path. yet this was the path I had taken, and like a certain redheaded idiot, I should not have any regrets.

Closing my eyes, i simply made a solemn promise to the faceless figures of my dreams, 'My goddesses wait for me as I conquer the multiverse and create an empire worthy of your presence.'

As sleep embraced me I could not help but question whether my dream would be worth it in the end.

########################

It was three days later that Gnarl contacted me again, saying that he had located around 5 towers that we could make use of. To say I was surprised was an understatement as I had thought it would take much longer than simply three days.

But it seems like I had underestimated the brown gremlin a lot.

"Well, sorry for the delay sire but I had to scout out the towers and deduce which ones we could feasibly make use off." Gnarl said bowing his head. "Most of them were filled with hostile creatures that we would have to later clear out once you get some training."

Seeing the brown minion bow I could not help but scratch my cheeks, "To be honest I thought it would take much longer honestly."

Gnarl simply huffed at my words and said, "Were I younger I would have been done in an hour and even clear out some of the infested towers myself. Sadly even the sands of time have sapped some of my vitality."

'Like you need any more of it.' I wanted to say out loud, knowing that Gnarl was quite the speedy bugger even in his condition. Really he was like Yoda with all that power pack in that small body. He must have been really scary in his prime.

"Anyway enough lingering sire, we should get going now." Gnarl said leading me deeper inside the forest.

"So, how far is the place?"

"Well to be honest I could open a portal here sire, but I think it is wiser to take some precautions first." Gnarl admitted, his idea was quite good and I was still unsure of what powers I was going to inherit and develop. So for now I was letting Gnarl take the lead on anything magical, till I manage to gain some rudimentary knowledge on it at least.

For now I had simply brought a side-bag with some rope, torch, some food and some books…yeah those kinds of books.

We soon reach a spot which gnarl seemed to be satisfied with and he muttered a chant of some sort. Blue light flickered around us, which I guess was probably some barrier of some sort. Then with a few more chants I saw a green portal come to life in front of us.

The green light of the portal was quite eerie in the darkness of the forest and knowing just who had opened the portal made me feel like I was in some sort of dark fantasy world.

'And you are the Big Bad Evil Overlord.' My mind supplied reminding me just what kind of job and title I had inherited.

Looking at the portal I knew that my life would no longer be the same once I took my first steps though it.

I could still back out now. Give the gauntlet to Gnarl, give up my powers and ask him to erase my memories of the event. I can still go back to my normal life like nothing happened if I chose not to back out now.

But "Okay, let's do this Gnarl" I had already made my mind. "Let's conquer the multiverse." With that said I stepped through the portal into the new world.

####################

…and into a ditch.

"Yep this is just the perfect way to start our adventure." I groaned, nursing my nose, which thankfully was not broken.

"Well…this sadly still is better than some of the past Overlords. I even recall a time when the newest overlords tried to make a grand entrance for their debut and spend most of the time in the infirmary after the disaster they caused." Gnarl said as he helped me get out of the ditch. He really had quite the stories to tell.

"Anyway come along sire and see your new base of power." Gnarl said as he led me down the muddy path.

We were in some sort of forest but in the distant I could see an ancient stone tower, made of white and black stones, the paint on the tower had wither faded into pale colours or was simply gone in some parts, the towers was also covered moss and wild plants, creating an aura of a truly ancient monument, which seemed to be quite intact despite its age.

"The tower is empty and is currently on a remote island surrounded by a barrier that keeps sailors and adventures from finding it. The island has plenty of resources, both in terms of materials and magical ingredients, as it is populated by both magical creatures and plants." Gnarl informed me about the general layout of the area. Frankly, hearing the details I thought that it was quite too good to be true.

"And you will not believe the number of predators and flesh-eating worms and plants that I discovered on the island. Why, just the other day I saw a hoard of cats eat a giant reptilian dog in a manner of seconds, not even leaving a single bone behind. I am sure that they would make excellent minions." Gnarl said grinning at me, no doubt expecting me to share his enthusiasm.

Yep the island was a mini death world, it was really too good to be true.

"Truly horrifying" I deadpanned trying not to show how disturbed I was.

"Yes horrifying and beautiful. You should have been their sire to see the cats eat away the dog at such a fast rate that the head was still howling in agony even as its lower body had been eaten away too the bone. It was truly a horrifying sight." Gnarl said with a giggle, thoroughly creeping me out.

The action reminded me of a child seeing and animal and gushing over it in desire to keep it. yeah Gnarl wanted those nasty little cats as a pet, in fact by the way he was going about the animals and plants on the island, I had no doubt that he wanted to keep some of them.

"Okay, OK, I get it; later on we will build a bestiary and a green house where you can take care of the plants and animal." I said massaging my heads trying hard not to think of the horrifying images that Gnarl had put in my head with his detailed and graphic retelling of hunts and kills he had seen, when he scouted the island.

"B-bu-but sire, I have no want of such thing" Gnarl sputtered at my words, "I…I, uh, I am merely giving you a run down on what glorious resources the island offers nothing more." Gnarl said nervously as he shifted to and fro in his place. He clearly was not good at hiding his apparent desire to own a bestiary and green house after I had mentioned it, especially when he was already wondering how he was going to take care of them without straining their resources.

"You Gnarl are going to build a bestiary and a greenhouse and see that they are fully stocked and maintained well. That is an order." I said making it official. The things an Overlord had to do for his minions.

"If that is your wish, sire." Gnarl said trying to sound reluctant about the whole ordeal, which in fact he was not. "I will see that it is done."

"But" Gnarl continued "a little bit of advice, sire. Don't let order minions push you around so easily. It is bad for one's reputation." Gnarl said as he skipped happily towards the tower, leaving me dumbfounded and stunned as I followed him with my jaw wide open.

That little bugger was quite the trickster.

Anyways the rest of the trip to the tower was not much interesting. The rooms were quite bare and the furniture while were in excellent condition, due to some charms and runes, were not up to my taste. Still beggars can't be choosers and they were quite classy too, though I refused to wear the clothes present in the tower, they were too old fashion.

There were some clothes and coats that I could use and some trousers, but only few as most of them had a balloon-effects when I wore them. I was no fashion expert but I knew a cosplay worthy dress when I saw one.

When I felt it was time to leave and head back to Kuoh, Gnarl informed me that he had modified the portal in such a way that time would flow faster in which side of the portal I was with the current conversion being 1 month on my side of the portal being equal to 1 hour on the other side.

I did not get everything he was trying to say but it basically meant that any place I was in acted like a Hyperbolic time chamber or something along that line. This basically meant that I had to say for at least two years on one side of the portal to make sure one day on the other side passed. Yeah Gnarl was stupidly scary and powerful if he could do that.

'And the bugger said that my predecessors could do that with much better efficiency.' Yep, I really had big, and I mean BIG, shoes to fill.

Still that meant that I could do my homework and study all I want I with this. Heck, last minute studies would no longer be last minute as I could stretch out the time simply by coming here. Yeah this was a skill I was going to surely learn.

With that said I decided to explore the place some more before returning home and start shift some of my stuff here, not only to hide some of the more questionable materials and give this place a makeover.

While the décor of the place was still impressive despite being worn with age, which I would admit that it gave them a unique charm, I still wanted to give it my personal touch too.

Let it not be said that boys are not great at decorating things.

Exploring the tower with Gnarl I discovered that the tower used some sort of odd glowing rocks to light up the place using magic. There was quite a lot of rune work, blacksmithing and magic involved too but I still did not know enough to say whether it was impressive or simply ordinary, though Gnarl really had some skewered standards even by most high fantasy standards. So it was quite debatable, for all I know the stones could be either primitive like oil-lamps or advance like nuclear powers bulbs, I really did not know enough to pass a concrete judgement.

It looks like I was really going to have to make a list of things to study and research. While more work did not seem appealing as I was not a workaholic, at least my stay here won't be boring and I could just pop back to Kuoh to catch a break.

Yep, no matter what I am not going to conquer my own world, that would be the place where I am going to spend my time as a normal person, or as normal as an overlord could be.

I also found some hidden storerooms and secret stashes, which gave quite a lot of resources.

 **Found Secret Stash of Hol!**

 **Congratulations You have Found a small Secret Stash of Overlord Hol, also known as Hoarder Hol due to his habit of hording away his various treasures.  
Received 100,000,000 resources  
Received 2 Soul stones (+1,000,000 Blank souls) Unlocked Resource: Can now use souls as resource for minion creation and upgrades.  
Received 10 Greater Blood orbs (+10,000,000 Blood Orb) Unlocked Resource: Can now use Blood orbs for minion creation and upgrades.**

That was simply one of the many stashes I had found, in the end I had gotten around 1,242,000,000 resources, 140 Soul Stones and 321 Greater Blood orbs. The number while seemed insanely high to me, just managed to raise an eyebrow from Gnarl who said that the find was quite smaller than what he was expecting. Really how ridiculous were his standards?!

Exploring some of the lower sections of the tower which were surprisingly free of spiders and rats, which was really weird as they were one of the prime pests that infested such towers.

I found quite a lot of armours, weapons and books, I even discovered a working magical forge room in the tower, which once again Gnarl said was very low-level trash level forge and not worth much in the long run. Which was once again, proof of just _how_ ridiculously powerful my predecessors were back in the day.

"Are you sure Gnarl that this is a low level trash Forge?" I asked Gnarl as I stared at the large forge, which consisted of three large towering pillars holding a large metal funnel like spherical chamber connected to a large chamber that was connected to a platform that looked like a production belt line.

"Of course this type of forges can only purify metals and raw materials and shape them into the desired items. It does nothing to reduce the materials required, enhance their properties, give them additional properties or even allow for the modification and enhancement of already manufactured items. Not to mention that it takes minutes on end to complete a single item compared to the pico-seconds of the average forges." Gnarl ranted and I could not help but gawk at his statement.

"Just how did they do that?! That is ridiculously fast!" and was that not an understatement.

"Oh nothing much," Gnarl responded "the forges just make use of temporal time dilation fields to speed up the process and remove the inner chambers of the forges from the normal flow of time to speed up the already fast and efficient manufacturing processes, all the while adding and the various magical properties and additional traits and functions to multiple items at once. This allowed for quite the extensive mass production of several items. And don't get me started on the mana-powered conjuration forges and the more powerful and efficient military Forges."

Gnarl finished his rant by hitting the forge with his cane and saying "This is nothing but a low-level trash forge that is suitable for small towns and cities on the frontier."

After hearing his rant I could now understand why it was a low-level trash, even if the forge in question that I had discovered could simply create anything I ask it to create down to the very last detail, provided I had the resources to do so. The forge also did not need anything from my part except for providing resources to the forge and using my gauntlet to synch with it and provide the required details and traits of the item.

I could theoretically create anything with it, if I met the requirements and Gnarl was saying that it was a low-level trash. Yeah, his standards were really bullshit, and the past overlords were bullshit personified if this thing was just a trash item for them.

Yep I really had big, BIG, BIGGGGG, shoes to fill.

As I decided to call it a day and head to Kuoh to gather my stuff Gnarl told me that the Gauntlet could also act as a storage unit and had infinite storage capacity and that it could change its shape to hide its appearance. I practiced this feature by stashing away all the Mana crystal, Blood orbs and Soul stones away in the gauntlet. As for the rest I told Gnarl to leave them as they were but told him to take the books to a more appropriate area.

Thinking that I was done for now I decided to head back to Kuoh to get my stuff, but just as I was about to ask Gnarl to open the portal a thought struck me, it was a simple idea but something that was worth pursuing.

"Say Gnarl can you open a portal to my room?" I asked.

"Of course sire." Gnarl responded as he opened the portal with a snap of his fingers, "Anything else?"

"Nothing for now." I replied mumbling 'show-off' under my breath.

Gnarl did not seem to hear my mumblings but he did seem to have a bigger grin on his face. 'Yeah, yeah rub your superior magical prowess don't you.'

Grumbling about overpowered magical Gremlins I made my way back to Kuoh, beginning a new phase in my journey to become the Harem King.

#################

The next day after school I travelled back to tower this time I intended to spend a day or two in the tower and help Gnarl arrange everything in the tower.

Due to the time dilation trick of the portals I had quite a lot of time on hand so I was in no hurry and spend quite a lot of time with my friends and fooling around as usual. Though I really had to try hard not smirk when my friends lamented about how we had to submit our assignments this Friday.

For me I had already done half of it and while normally it would be quite late since I had only three days to complete it, due to Gnarl and the Portal I had gotten almost months' worth of time on hand.

Overlord Magical Bullshit, baby and while some would call it cheating, Hey I was an Evil Overlord, cheating was just one of the basic requisites of the job,

I did notice that that the Student Council was oddly more attentive towards me.

I guess they still had not forgiven me for entering the council room why they were changing. The beating was so worth searing the image of their beautiful figures in my mind. But who the hell changes in the Council room? That's what the girls' locker and changing room were for.

Still I guess I have to be more careful from now on, I guess. After all I now had secrets that were better left buried and hidden behind closed doors.

################################

"Welcome back sire." Gnarl greeted me as I came through the portal. "All rest up I see."

"Yep." I replied "all rest up and good to go. I even brought some extra food and some toiletries so that can spend some few days here before going back." Not to mention my homework and some few special magazines.

Yeah I was going to stash them away here in a completely different world. Best hiding place ever!

"So Gnarl what is the plan for today?" I asked my advisor minion.

"Well I have already sorted the books and the weapons to the armoury and library which I might add is a great war-room and study room too." Gnarl began, "Though I have noticed that some parts need repairing and while they won't cause any problems for now, I recommend we fix this problems before any major accidents occurs."

"Okay, so tower repair. How are we going to do it?" I asked Gnarl, seeing that I did not know how to use the gauntlet properly yet. I got it yesterday and I had yet to try out some of it features.

"With magic of course." Gnarl said smiling, "Not only would this help us repair the tower but will also allow me to teach you some vital spells and get you to practice them productively too, Sire."

And so began my training in the magical arts.

The first spell Gnarl taught me was the **[Telekinesis]** spell which allowed me to levitate rocks the size of my fist, which was not saying much as Gnarl was able to lift multiple boulders which were not only bigger than me but some were even bigger than my house and must have weighed in tonnes, all the while without breaking a sweat.

While it took me everything I got to lift that small rock.

Gnarl said that it was mostly due to my low stamina and mana reserves, so he gave me some exercises to help build them up.

For my reserves he gave me a breathing and meditation technique which would allow me to quickly build up my reserves called the Heavenly Star Cultivation, which would allow me to not only temper my body but also increase my reserves quickly and steadily.

It was just the kind of bullshit technique I was expecting off Gnarl and my Predecessors. Really how stupidly bullshit, were they?!

As for my stamina Gnarl had me run around the tower multiple times all the while making me clear the boulders and rotten wood that were in my path.

Then after my rounds I was sent to meditate a bit in a Bleach-styled healing hot spring which Gnarl said was not only filled with healing energies but was also quite rich in mystical energies which would allow my Heavenly Star Cultivation technique to quickly help increase my progress by a lot.

Gnarl really wanted me to grow powerful quickly but we had a small problem something called being just average and having less than average talent. Sure I was progressing fast but due to having almost no talent or aptitude towards the mystical arts I was going really slow compared to my predecessors.

It was only due to the bullshit techniques and tools that Gnarl was whipping out that I was even making any noticeable progress. It was cheating I know but they were kind of required in my case gnarl even said that it was not unheard of past Overlords to use this method of power too and take their time to grow powerful, so I had no need to feel ashamed of my progress.

Let me repeat again my predecessors are bullshit and have done almost everything I could imagine. They even took away my chance to become the first Overlord with Average aptitude and talent and become a powerhouse later on. They really were bullshit.

I guess I will just have to settle for my Harem and a big family and let my descendants care about breaking records of my predecessors.

 **######################################**

Time passed by and days turned into weeks, due to the Heavenly Star Cultivation, I had managed to build up quite a bit of my reserves and I could now easily outrun my school track team and even lift some of the bigger boulders.

The lack of buffed muscles was a sore point and I did not have a six pack abs yet, just four for now and that too was just in its starting stages and that was hidden well by my school uniform too. So I was not turning heads yet or getting some lustful gazes sent my way.

Not that I could as Gnarl told me that while it was natural for me to develop them due to my hard work over the past few weeks, I had to remember that only hours and a day had passed back home due to the Time Dilation.

That was a major downside for me and made me realise that I had to make sure that I remember the dates, time and the events that was happening back home lest I confuse myself and make a mistake that could out my secret of being a Magical Evil Overlord.

Leaving that aside, for now I was back in the tower levitating a Gargoyle statue into its place near the corner of one of the balconies of the Tower.

Putting the Gargoyle in place I use my latest spell [Transmutation] to transmute the base of the statue and fuse it into the pillar, while adding some personal touches to the Gargoyle and the pillar.

"Well done Sire." Gnarl said examining the statue and the pillar. "You've have managed to not only lift the Gargoyle but have performed a perfect transmutation too."

Finally, really it had taken me quite a while to get to this stage and I had finally gotten the hang of my two spells.

Then Gnarl had to rain on my parade by saying, "And this time the statue is without breasts too. well done, Sire."

"One time, it was one time."

"One time too many, sire, such a statue and figure are better off breastless." Gnarl said shuddering at the memory. It was a really horrifying.

"Still I must say sire, you really do have a talent for **[Transmutation],** to quickly master it to such extend." Gnarl said praising me. I let loose a snort at the notion.

"Master it my foot. It is only due to the spell being so damn Overpowered and Broken due to its easy to use and learn style that I am able to use it so well. Not to mention I do know that I have still a long way to go before I can Transmute a Castle out of an anthill or a palace our of a ray of light." Really transmuting Light into acres wide floating palace? That was pure bullshit! Conservation of mass my foot!

"Still I must say your ability to visualise and carefully guide the transmutation energies is nothing less than what a master of transmutation is expected to do. All that is needed not is some practice with transmuting various elements and increasing your reserves a bit more and I can see you doing the same over the top acts of Transmutation that your predecessors did." Gnarl said honestly and it was true, I really had an incredible talent in transmutation.

Even if that talent stemmed from my previous hard earn ability of memorising and perfectly visualising the female anatomy. Reasons aside it was paying tenfold in helping me master the spell at a faster rate.

"You said that you would teach me a new spell Gnarl, seeing that I was getting into more and more accidents as of late. A healing spell I presume." I asked Gnarl feeling a bit giddy at the prospect of learning a new spell. I was really getting the hang of being an Overlord and learning new magic spells.

"Yes two spells actually. One is called **[Restore]** and the other is called **[Cure]**. **[Restore]** helps in healing all wounds and injuries and even restore and repair broken items and weapons, while Cure is a powerful spell that helps cure ailments, diseases and even dispel poison. But I have to say this that it is dependent on the caster and his proficiency with the spell the more proficient the caster is the better the effects of the spell. Like Restore might even heal and even restore a person's limbs or simply heal a small cut. Likewise Cure might cure even the deadliest poison or even fail to cure a small cough. It all depends on the caster…" Gnarl explained going on the intricacies and pitfalls of the two spells.

He always gave a long lecture before he taught me new spells and it was nice listening to him explain the spells. Gnarl never made it boring too so that was a plus point and I knew that to fulfil my role I had to learn about the spells and its long history and how they served my predecessors well.

They had refined the spells to the extreme and I now had to see if I could make my own refinement or add my own twist to the spells or not.

So I listened, I listened and learned of the long rich history of magic and healing.

####################################

"Say Gnarl you never told me how I am supposed to level up." I asked my advisor minion even as I practiced my latest spells.

 **[Agni]** a fire spell, **[Iód]** an ice spell, **[Iwa]** an earth spell and **[Vayu]** an air spell. These spells while basic at first glance, were quite versatile in nature as they only followed the few basic principles unlike other elemental spells. Add more power into the spell to make it more powerful and use you mind to shape the spells into your desired shapes and sizes, simple.

Yep if I had enough power to empower the spells I could reshape the entire landscape at will but for now I was just going to have to be satisfied with simply tossing a few fireballs and rocks around. It just took the whole master the Basics then master the world to a whole new level.

The Overlord stat sheet was more like a game stat sheet with levels included, so there must have been some way I could level up and gain more power.

"Through battle of course," Gnarl replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which at second glance it might be. It was not like I was going to get a quest all of a sudden.

"Though sire before you go into battle, I will have to teach you how to summon minions, to ensure that you can survive your battles. I have seen quite a lot of Overlords fall in their first combat outing due to been overwhelmed both in numbers and powers due to not having their minions nearby." Gnarl said as he took out a tome from his staff.

"This tome will teach you how to summon your own minions, their general characteristics and how to create totems and new minions systems so that you can create new minions types for yourself." Gnarl said handing me the tome.

"Why do I need to learn how to create a new minion system? Isn't there a more efficient system already in place?" that seemed just weird.

I mean with the rich long history of my predecessors I am sure they must have perfected the minion system already seeing as it was the basis of all past Overlords. So why am I supposed to create a new system that will no doubt be much more inefficient.

"That is because when it comes to minions each Overlord had different tastes. Some took them as lovers and sex slaves, some used them as soldiers and free labours, while others used them as more skilled scientists and administrators." Gnarl explained and I had the urge to throw up at the sex slave line. That was just wrong on so many levels not to mention the minions were not too good looking too and only a really perverted and depraved person could use them as sex slave.

Still the image of minions trying to act as politicians and office workers was a funny image, even though I had to question how they would achieve that.

"I am sure by now you must be wondering how the normal minions would achieve that." Gnarl said reading my thoughts, "The answer is they don't."

"They don't?"

"Yes they don't, the Overlords simply create new minion types that suit their tastes and the tasks at hand and while some of new minion types last for centuries on end they still get phased out for new types that suit the preferences of the new Overlord or the changing situation of the new era." Gnarl explained.

"So why keep the original minion types? I am sure that the Overlords must have created better ones." I pointed out, failing to see why the original minions were still in the database and the default minion choice instead of the new minion types.

"That is because in terms of efficiency, power and to quote a past Overlady 'adorable murder machines' the original minions more than fulfil their given roles. Whether they be assassinations, anti-magic works, siege warfare, large scale battles, aerial combat and sheer durability and survivability, they more than fulfil their tasks as experts and cannon fodders. Easily able to gain enough experience to not only survive some of the harshest battles but also easily recover their numbers both on and off battles and the sheer low cost to upkeep them is not something that one can simple ignore." Gnarl explained.

"I have also seen Dragons, giants, titans and gods fall down to the minions even if it was simply due to sheer force of the numbers they had and the clever use of some of the anti-magic abilities of the minions. Do not underestimate them sire, for these small and foolish minions have cause the destruction of multiple kingdoms, empires and even pantheons themselves." Gnarl said warning me, and I had to remember that Gnarl was one of the original minions too and he was quite powerful too.

Looking at the tome, I wondered if I could create such a minion race that would surpass the original minion race. It was highly unlikely but it was something worth pursuing nonetheless.

"Well I guess I should start studying this. Thanks Gnarl."

"It was simply my duty sire."

With that I went to the study room to study the tome and uncover the secrets of the minions.

####################################

"Gnarl I must say that it was a good idea to build this greenhouse." I praise Gnarl as I bit down on the strange apple that Gnarl had grown. "It really solves the food problem I was facing and would allow me stay here longer and I would no longer have to buy bulks of instant food from the stores back home anymore."

There was limit to how much you can eat instant noodles and other instant foods and I was not a good cook too and thus could not create good food from the ingredients I would have bought, though I was learning to cook so that I could extend my stay here in the tower.

Food was the only thing that was keeping me from staying months on end here in the tower. Thus I was forced to prioritise completing Gnarl's Greenhouse when he offhandedly mentioned that some of the fruits on the island were edible and quite good too, even though if it meant housing some of the more carnivorous plants too.

"The Browns and Reds have also prepared some fine meat from hunting the local wildlife and have suffered no losses as of yet." Gnarl added, yeah while fruits were all well and good I still needed some meat to go with it, not to mention the minions also preferred hunting for their food too and the local wildlife provided both that and some good combat experience for them too.

I went with them a few times to hunt with them and explore the island too and even found out how the levelling system works. Suffice to say, it was a levelling system that suited an Evil Overlord to the tee.

After learning about it, I was a bit put off from hunting and exploring for now.

So I was just sending my adorable murder machines to hunt for food and explore the areas.

"Say Gnarl how is the mining equipment coming? I really want to get started on the whole thing and start extracting the crystal veins."

It was a little project that Gnarl and I had devised.

We had found multiple crystal caves full of strange growing crystals which by careful use of magic we could control their growth and mine them for resources. Such caves were quite valuable and the growth of the crystals was quite fast even without magic and as such we could really mine them for quite a while.

The problem was I still needed quite a lot of proper mining equipment to mine them as they were a bit poisonous and radioactive too. it was only due to Gnarl and the [Overlord Body] that I was able to survive going to the caves.

Without proper equipment even my minions could not enter the caves before the poison and radiation got to them and that was not mentioning the mutated rates and wolves and even the crystal tigers that inhabited the caves making the caves all the more dangerous.

Still I had managed to clear one cave by killing the tiger inhabiting the cave, which was also when I had learned how to level up too. It was not the largest cave but it was enough for now.

"The mining equipment as coming along nicely and I have set up the arrays that would allow for a control growth of the crystals." Gnarl replied.

Good that would give me some income of resources which was needed to create new minions. Now I had to find a way to get more Blood Orbs and Blank Souls, hunting wildlife was only a short term fix for now.

"Well that is good then, now let's go eat that meat shall we." I said heading towards the Kitchen with Gnarl following me licking his lips as the smell of the cooked meat penetrated our senses

It was…good.

 **################################**

It had taken me around four months to fix the tower up and redecorate the place with Gnarl and the minions help. During which I had gotten the hang of the spells like **[Telekinesis], [Transmutation]** and **[Restore]** , **[Cure]** got some good practice too.

 **[Telekinesis]** was a skill that Gnarl said that if I mastered it, I would master as aspect of the universe. It was powerful and ridiculously diverse in its application with the top-tier telekinesis users being gods in their own right. Still after four months I was quite far off from that level and had to do with just lifting a few boulders at a time.

 **[Transmutation]** was an OP skill as it allowed me to transmute various materials from existing materials. Some of the things the past Overlords did with this skill was truly Godlike going as far as to even transmute light itself, thoroughly bypassing or outright ignoring the laws of Conservation of Mass. I could also do that on a minor scale but nothing like creating a castle out of a molehill yet, but soon, soon I would be able to do those absurd things. Yeah magic was bullshit like that.

 **[Restore]** was a spell that acted both as a healing spell and a repair spell as it could restore both organic and inorganic items and materials, though for now I had only mastered the repair side of the skill as the healing side was quite difficult to master.

 **[Cure],** a spell used to cure ailments, diseases and poisons, I used it to the fullest to tackle, the numerous paralysing poisons and lethal poisons that some of the more nasty animals and plants of the island employ. It was really good practice but not one I enjoyed.

Apart from these four spells, my elemental spells **[Agni], [Iód], [Iwa]** and **[Vayu]** were coming along nicely too and I even got to practice them in live combat against some of the more violent inhabitants of the island.

Basic as they were they still were quite deadly in their own right and due to my ability to visualise things clearly these spells were forming the cornerstone of my fighting style.

Gnarl did say that later on I will learn some advance spells that made use of the surrounding natural energies to sustain and empower itself, but he would teach me that after I learn how to control my own powers and spells so that I don't accidentally unleash a spell that will siphon off all the energies of a planet and destroy the world as a result.

'If you are going to destroy a world do it intentionally not accidentally during practice.' Gnarl said, not as a warning about the consequences of the misuse of my power but because he probably wanted to see the cowering scared faces of the inhabitants when I destroy a world, which he could not do so when I did it accidentally.

Yeah he really wanted me to go on the Evil Overlord route but from what I had learned the past months about the races present in the Multiverse, there were some that I might have no qualms destroying due to the various crimes and atrocities they had performed over the years. And I might even destroy certain worlds due to their very existence being an insult to my very ideas and beings. I really hope that I don't have to do that in a long, long time.

Still my studies in magic were going pretty well even with my less than average magical reserves which Gnarl said should increase as I kept practicing the Heavenly Star Cultivation, so that was not a big deal for me.

Gnarl even taught me some runes spells but said that I was not going to become a master of that craft in a long, long time, with the most optimistic estimate being 130 years, which was a long time for me, even with the now broken time dilation powers I had.

Yes, I had also learn the skill **[World Door]** the portal spell that allows me to manipulate the flow of time and create a hyperbolic time chamber like environment. But even though I could use the skill and dilate the time, it was still nowhere near the level that Gnarl could perform. My best was just a 1 second to 5 second ratio, nothing like Gnarl which had second to day conversion rate.

Well after four long months of training and restoring the tower I was finally ready to summon my first custom minion.

Gnarl had been quite persistent in telling me to start summoning my custom minions and start creating my own minion system as starting now would give me quite the needed practice due to the free time I had on hand which I might lack later on as my duties as The Overlord take priority and consume much of my time.

While the idea merit, I did not want my first minion to be just a run of the mill cannon fodder. No, I wanted my first minion to be something that would stand with me till the end of my empire and stand head and shoulder above my other minions and take place as my general in the field.

For this I turned to my games and anime and other media to find the most appropriate model. Yep the system I was creating would use the characteristics of fictional characters to empower my minions.

At first I thought of using Goku and Superman as the basis for my first minion but I found out that they were just too, too strong to control and were simply just too much above my level for me to put them down or re-establish my control in case they got out of my control, which Gnarl admitted could happen when the minion had too much 'instincts' to follow his commands naturally.

So no I was not going to use them for now, maybe later when I had grown stronger I would attempt pursuing that idea but for now I had to look to other avenues.

Following that method I started discarding a lot of names and characters that I had gathered up as suitable basis for my minions. In the end, I found that some were just too weak with no potential for extra growth or just too strong for me to have reliable control over them.

But I still managed to make a suitable list of characters that could serve as a basis for my minions.

Most of them were characters from Fate Stay/Night and thus I thought that it would be better if I created something akin like the Servant system for my minions. In that regard Gnarl had been quite the big help in hammering out the kinks and refining the system I wanted to employ.

"Sire, after seeing your plans for the minions, I must say that it is quite ambitious of you to create something of this sort." Gnarl said, as he followed me to the chamber where I was going to create my first minion.

"Yes and with the style of minion creation we are going to employ and the hard upgrades we will give to the lesser minions, we will be quite well off for now before we upgrade to better ones." I replied thinking of the grand armies that would soon be in my command.

Yeah, I was letting the power get to my head and Gnarl was not helping matters either but I wanted to indulge myself a bit after four months of training and preparations.

"Oh yes, past overlords did use minions to conquer worlds and patrol the land but with this method, you will bring new fear to the word minions and cannon fodder, my sire." Gnarl smiled for once truly impressed with me and my idea and let me tell you he was quite hard to please as he had seen quite a lot of things in his long life that some deeds while impressive were still overshadowed by other deeds that were greater still. So, I had to pat myself in the back for impressing him this one time.

Reaching the room, which was a hall in all but name, I saw that the ritual circles Gnarl and I had created for the task and the materials needed for the ritual were all present in their place. Models of units and figurines of the characters that I was going to use as catalysts for the ritual were all present, with my 'Player' class powers providing the Resources, Blood Orbs and Soul Stones, using its system. It was a really bullshit power that made quite a lot of things convenient for me.

Going to the centre of the hall I stood before the largest ritual circle, a circle specifically created for the sole purpose of creating my first minions and the special system I had created for my most powerful minions.

'The Heroic Servant System'

This system was basically a blend of a normal RPG-hero Class and the Servant System of FSN. The base classes would basically be Servant Class with some Changes that I had implemented with a levelling up system based on Blood Orbs and Soul Stones. It was basically the Chaldea Servant system from Grand Order with the Blood Orbs and Soul Stones replacing the Experience Cards.

The main difference was that I was not going to summon a Servant or anything of that sort, I was simply going to 'create' a Servant from the ground up which gave me quite the leeway in the 'stats' I would be allocate my minions and how the growth rate affects their stat gain, which I could later modify to my liking later on. It was quite the flexible system with Gnarl getting most of the credit he really did help sort out most of the kinks in the system.

I also made sure to make them 'adaptive' though it was nowhere near like the Zerg-adaptive but it came quite close to it.

I gathered up my thoughts and slowly filtered away the unneeded ones as I pushed all my focus into the ritual. Pouring my power into the circle, I activated it and willed it into the direction of my thoughts and wants, laying down everything I needed for the task.

My part was simply, I had to envision everything I wanted of my minion. From its shape and size, to the powers and abilities it would wield and everything in between.

It was not too easy a task, because even though I was able to envision single detail of the minion's appearance, envisioning the powers and abilities I was going to give it was a whole another ball game.

Still I was able to do so, and I had been able to sort out which powers and abilities I would give it now and which abilities my minions would gain later on. After that it was just a matter of thinking about its appearance and bringing it to life.

The circle roared to life and tendrils of magic flowed in the air as I saw the translucent figure of the minion float in the air.

She floated in the air like a pale blue ghost, almost transparent yet the details I imagined were all there from her face to down to her clothes. She was truly a sight to behold and one that I was going to bring to life.

After that was done, a blue box popped up in from of me asking me for confirmations of the next step.

 **Would you like to create the Minion?  
Cost 10,000,000 Resources, 100,000,000 blank souls and 300,000,000 Blood orbs.  
YES/NO**

Seeing the cost I almost choked and lost my concentration then and there at seeing the cost of the minion. While my stores of resources had increased over the past few months after Gnarl had taught me how to harvest them from animals and plants without harming them, it still had not increased by much and thus the cost would take almost 80% of my entire resources bar the 'Resource' one.

Gnarl had also pointed out that the system we were using relied quite a lot on Blood Orbs especially if I wanted to create a lot of magic oriented minions. So creating this minion would mean that I would have to stick to non-magical minions for quite a while which to be honest would hamper quite a lot of plans I had laid out.

But upon gazing at the translucent figure of my minion, who looked like a goddess, I knew that it was going to be worth the cost. I could just later on harvest the materials or raid one of the hidden stashes to fill up my depleted resources. So it was no big loss for me.

Tapping YES, on the box, I felt the items inside the gauntlet flow into the material world in a stream of red, blue white and golden lights. The lights filling up the figure of the translucent image of the minion and I saw her gain what was human flesh and bones.

It was like seeing a pencil sketch being filled with colours with every part of them vibrant as the last. Skin that was white as snow, yet had hues of red that indicated the warm blood flowing within, lips pale and translucent were given the red colour of roses and a softness that seem to simply melt, hair that were but strands of blue light were given a golden glow bunched in a black ribbon. The armour was given form and metal as it wrapped her body in protection from forces beyond comprehension. Weapons of power were brought to reality as I saw swords, daggers and lance hanging of her body and waist waiting to be drawn into battle.

And lastly, I felt her being filled with power beyond measure, as every inch of her body flowed with magic, the red streams filling her with life and the golden stream seemed to go beyond simply empower the body of my minion.

Then in a brilliant flash of light the process was completed and I saw her in all her glory.

I don't know how long I kept staring at her but what I did know was that the figure before me was someone that in knew would always follow me to till the ends of time. The connection that I felt slowly establish between us was something I had no words for as the intense devotion I felt from her threatened to overwhelm my senses and being.

Gnarl had said that minions were loyalty incarnate and were devoted their very life and souls to serve the Overlord. I had not paid much stock to that when I had first heard it but now, now after feeling it I could not help but be in awe of it.

It also scare me to the bone of just how much control I had over the minions that my previous fears of them going out of control seem almost mote. Gnarl did say that minions with very wild instincts could go out of control and I knew now that it was certainly possible but…but I also knew that their instincts would always make them protect and serve me, even if they had to disobey my orders.

Yeah the only reason my minions would disobey me will be to protect me and their actions would always be for my own good too. That was the problem of having really devoted, near fanatical and Hyper-competent underlings. And I was going to lead an army of them.

Yeah this job just got a whole lot complicated.

I was broken out from my thoughts as I saw her, my minion, open her sea green eyes and with a smile greeted me.

" **Servant Saber, Artoria Pendragon, reporting for duty, my master."**

 **##################################**

 **AN: Yep this is a thing so what do you think of it. And yes Issei is being OOC but well Gnarl is pushing him to be an Overlord and his influence is not helping matters so yes This Issei won't be entirely the same as in cannon. Think of him as an OC if that help matters.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Servant Saber, Artoria Pendragon, reporting for duty." Those were the first words she spoke to me and those words would forever be etched in my mind for eternity.

I…I had done it. I had managed to create a fully functional minion with all the characteristics of a Grand Order Servant.

 **Gained Minion Heroic Servant Saber, 'Artoria Pendragon'  
Gained Skill Minion Master  
New Minion System success, you can now create 'Heroic Servants' as a minion class**

I brushed aside the notifications and used observe to look at Artoria's stats.

 **Name:** Artoria Pendragon **Age:** N/A **  
Level: lv.1 EXP: 0%  
Class**: Hero **Race:** Minion  
 **Title** : Saber **  
HP: 73,675 HP Regen: 514.3 HP/sec  
MP: 81,865 MP Regen: 812.1 MP/sec  
STR*: 143  
AGI: 90  
INT: 121  
SKILL POINTS: 10**

 **Skills:**

 **[Minion Soul]-Passive- MAX LEVEL  
Description: The user possess Minion Soul, upon dying the soul of the user would automatically transfer to the Overlord, where the Overlord can use the soul to bring back the minion back to life or simply create a new body for the minion to inhabit. Minion Souls can also be used to enhance items and weapons they can still be given a body again though they would no doubt be weaker than before.**

 **[Multi-verse Adaption]- Passive- MAX LEVEL**

 **Description: This ability allows the user to adapt any knowledge and skills and magic found in the multiverse and use them without any repercussion.**

 **[Dragon Heart]-Passive- MAX LEVEL  
Description: The user has a Hear of a Dragon which gives it increased HP regen, increased Mana reserves and increased Mana Regen.  
Passively Grants +500 HP regen per sec  
Passively Grants +800 MP regen per sec  
Passively Grants +70,000 HP  
Passively Grants +80,000 MP**

 **[Master of Arms]-Passive- Level: 1 EXP: 0%  
Description: This Skill allows the user to wield any modern and ancient weapons, from fire arms to melee weapons and other exotic weapons.  
Passively increases damage of all weapons by 10%.  
Passively increases accuracy of all ranged weapons by 10%.  
Passively increases the range of all ranged weapons by 4X.**

 **[Magical Resistance] Passive- MAX LEVEL  
Description: Lowers damage done my magical spells and reduces their effects.  
Passively Negates spells that are less than 20 levels above the users Level.  
Passively Reduces damage and effects of all magical spells by 80%.  
Current Level of Spells that can be negated: 20**

 **[Adaptive Armour & Weapon]- Passive- MAX LEVEL  
Description: Any weapons and amours worn by the user are affected by this skill. This skill makes armours more resilient to damage from attacks of the same nature and makes weapons more effective against their targets after successful hits; this skill affects both magical and physical attacks and defences. Can stack up to a maximum of 20000% bonus for both attack and defence, the bonus is also permanent and extends to all future attacks and armours.  
Passively reduces damage done by enemy weapons or attacks by 4% per hit.  
Passively increases damage done the user using a weapon by 4% per successful hit.**

 **[Magical Enhancements] -Active Level: 1 EXP: 0% Mana cost: 400 MP per sec and additional 400 per sec for every 1 extra stage of enhancement.  
Description: The user can enhance their physical prowess by channelling raw mana through their body, not only does it increases your physical abilities but also creates a layer of defence around your body. The higher the level of this skill, the more they are able enhance their body using less mana.  
Actively: Each stage gives a 20% physical enhancement and increases defence by 20%  
Current Max Level of Stages = 1**

 **[Mana Shield]- Active Level: 1 EXP: 0% Mana Cost: 1 MP per 1 HP worth of Damage  
Description: The user surrounds himself in a shield made of mana which absorbs incoming attacks of all nature, negating damage and draining mana equal to the amount of damage absorbed.  
Actively: Creates a thin layer of magical shield which drains 1 MP per 1 point worth of damage.**

Well…that was just OP, which while it was something I was aiming for; this was totally beyond my expectation.

Sure I meant to enhance Artoria's dragon traits but damn, this was just too broken. I mean look at it…just look at the bonuses it is providing to Artoria, simply the bonus health and MP was broken enough but on top of it the regen was just too broken.

Looking back at Artoria I saw that she was still kneeling and well, uh, I did not know what to say for now.

"You can rise up now Artoria." I finally said trying not to sound too awkward.

Artoria said nothing and simply rose and stood there.

Okay now that I had a minion, what's next?

####################

The next few days were extremely awkward for me as well I did not know what to do with Artoria. After creating her due to the sheer awkwardness of the situation I decided to put off creating the other minions and help Artoria settle down first.

It was a good thing the tower had lots of empty rooms for now as I was easily able allocate Artoria an empty room to use as her bedroom, which incidentally was near the master bedroom, namely my room.

Gnarl said that it was better to get used to being close to Artoria as she was not only my first minion but would also be my bodyguard for the unforeseeable future.

Even with that said I am bad with girls especially one as innocent as Artoria.

"So master am I supposed to wear this whenever I attend you?" Artoria asked holding a maid dress in her hands.

I was so very much tempted to say yes but I just could not. While it would be great to see her in a maid dress, the very essence and meaning of the dress would be lost due to Artoria not knowing the meaning behind wearing this dress along with the oh, so very erotic appeal of it.

"No, not now and I would explain the reason later on." I said and mentally noted that I was using that sentence a lot in the past few days as I tried my best to 'teach' Artoria about the world or at least about how I understood it, which…was not good for a girl like her.

I needed help. But the problem was asking for help would mean exposing others to my secret which honestly I did not want to do at such an early stage.

"Then what about this master." Artoria said as she held up a traditional ninja costume.

"That…um…you can wear but only when we are going on some missions at night or one that requires stealth." I said staring blankly at the ninja costume. Really where was Artoria getting all these costumes?

Artoria said nothing but she had a beaming smile on her face and was holding the ninja costume as if it was a precious treasure. Looking at it, I noted that it was charmed as hell and would be extremely durable despite being made of simple cloth.

'It must have been left by one of my predecessors.' I thought as I saw Artoria try out the ninja dress and forgetting the fact that I was in the room again. Really, this girl, can't she even pretend to be modest in front of me.

'Because you are my master', what kind of excuse is that! At this rate I would surely die of blood loss before I even conquer a single world.

"I knew I would find the two of you here." Gnarl said as he entered the room, "And I see that Artoria is up to her usual antics again."

"Well you know how she is." I replied trying my best to look dignified despite my dripping nose, sometimes I wish that I could control it but well, some sights are truly worth shedding blood for. "Where am I going wrong." I complained to gnarl about my utter inaptitude towards teaching Artoria Life Skills.

Gnarl simply let loose a chuckle and said "You're not doing anything wrong, Sire. It's just how Artoria is. You can say that it's just her personality and character that makes her act like this."

"You think so?" I asked sceptical about what Gnarl was saying, I still think that my teachings has some deficiency still.

No one said it was easy being an Evil Overlord and no one said I had to like it too, despite all the benefits.

"I know so." Gnarl said, "And while I know that it would still weigh heavily on you mind. Trust me Sire, trust me when I say this that you are doing well and while surely you won't be the best at it, you are doing fairly well for your first time. Sometimes it is the student that is to blame but like all good teachers I know that you won't accept that as fact."

And it was true I was not going to accept his words at face value not only with how inexperienced I was at this thing but also due to our relationship as Master and Servant, and we all know that evil minions always seek to curry their master's favour and Gnarl was one damn good evil minion.

"Leaving aside our resident Hero's case, Sire, I want to ask, when do you plan to create the next batch of minions?" Gnarl asked me at which even Artoria looked at me with interest. No doubt curious to know when she would meet her fellow minions.

"Well after creating Artoria, I decided to look at the list again and thought that it was all sorts of messed up and so I was busy creating a new list again. This time trying to streamline it so that they are somewhat around Artoria's level yet cheap to create. I was thinking of not creating any more Hero class minions for now." I replied stating my thoughts on the matter.

Really looking at the previous list, it was all sorts of messed up with what me trying to keep things 'Balanced' and all. I had forgotten that I was not editing maps for Rance or StarCraft and Warcraft where I had to keep 'unit balance' in mind for optimal level of fun and competitive gameplay. Evil was the bane of Balance and I was going to cheese the hell out of my units and make them all Ultra Marine tier cannon fodders, which was harder than it sounded.

It was really hard unlike maps where I could easily change the values of stats, abilities and units with a simply click of a button. No, I had to dig deep into the archives of books and spells and mix and mash all sorts of hax abilities, spells and powers to get the perfect solution, all the while keeping in mind that I had to make them cheap as hell. Till now I could not drop the cost below 500 resources which while seemed less would not allow me to field millions of minions like I wanted, my goal thus was in the tens of units and not hundreds, if I could reduce the cost to that much than some of the few hundreds and thousands templates would become viable as higher tier minions.

Till now I was just down to some basic melee minions and casters, who were nothing much, and with my limited amount of resources with no way to increase them without a 'worker' unit and an economy I had to be careful while creating my minion templates.

Wait a minute! Workers! Yes, that's what I needed right now, workers and by which I could lay the groundwork for an economy.

"You know what Gnarl, why don't you come and help me creating a template for my new minion." And yes you can join in too Artoria." I said eagerly wanting to know their suggestions and ideas. Gnarl surely would have a lot of ideas with him but I also wanted to see if Artoria could also throw in some of her own.

"Off to the drawing board everyone."

####################

The next few hours were spent in the relative comfort of the study hall, a massive hall that served both as a library and a study. Ideas kept bouncing about the three of us, some good…

"…and we can even make them look badass."

""Denied""

"Oh come on the Heterodynes aren't that bad."

"Yes they are."

…yet reject, while some were plain bad…

"Oh how about Zerg Drones, they seem pretty good."

""Denied""

"But they seem so cute and cuddly, just look at this chibi drone and tell me they aren't cuddly."

""Still no""

"You guys are no fun."

…and finally we simply settle for a simple design.

"What is simple about freaking Tech Priest?!" I bellowed out looking at the mould and the list of abilities the Tech Priest would have. OP did not even begin to scratch the surface of it, as despite being a 'worker' class minion. It could serve well in any frontline situation and its **[Construct]** ability and **[Technosorcery Mastery** ] gave it quite the leg up in decoding technology and a little bit of magic. It also had the **[Harvest & Reclaim]** ability which allowed it to harvest 'resources' and add it directly to my own pool.

Its extra mechanical arms greatly helped in repairing and constructing tools, vehicles and structures at an really obscene pace and it even came with a personal force field too on top of its damn impressive armour and could wield a variety of weapons that it could create from scratch, like guns etc. though its primary armament was its staff and two in-built lasers in its mechanical arms. All in all a deadly worker, who had no right to be called a 'worker' but screw you 'balance'.

"Well despite its strange appearance this form is the most suited for our given tasks." Gnarl pointed out and I could not help but agree. Being on a Mini-death World Island, meant that even a basic worker minion would have to have the firepower of a small army just to survive, which the 'Tech Priest' had in spades.

"I think they are great." Artoria said as she picked up the mould. I just hope that the Tech Priest do not inherit their insane cultist like habits of their cannon counterparts.

"Now that we have a worker class and the day is still young I think we have time to hash out the details of a basic minion that act as both cannon fodder and the backbone of our army." I said wanting to ride the enthusiasm of the two. "And remember we are going Fantasy theme here so less sci-fi more fantasy but it should also be something that can stand up to modern armies." I said pointing out the characteristics of the army.

While Hot Alien Girls are cute as Lala proved I still wanted some hot elves. Also what is with the fascination with blue alien chicks? I just don't get it.

"Back to the drawing board"

##################################

"…and this is why the Mage Knights are good soldiers." Gnarl said as he ended his speech, as he listed out all the reasons to make Mage Knights a good addition to the army. "This would also not only bolster our military power but if we need more inferior soldiers we can always recruit them from the population later on." Gnarl added and honestly it was a good advice too.

"Well the mould we have made is also quite inexpensive." Really the MKs needed only 15 resources and 3 blank souls to create.

"The halberds and swords are quite cool with them acting as range weapons too, though why shields?" Artoria asked curios at the tri shields I was planning on giving the MKs.

"Well they do have the **[Defend]** ability and that requires a shield to use so there is that." really **[Defend]** was a broken ability in terms of range protection and it was an ability that mere footmen had in Warcraft 3.

"Now we just need some spellcasters and a tanky elite minion and we can call it a day, so suggestions?"

"Hmm, I have two spellcasters in mind that might prove useful." Gnarl answered.

"Let's hear it then."

"First of all a Healer-type minion that can use the ability [Revive], it is an ability that can raise dead minions originally belonging to the Blue Minions, having such a powerful ability will take care of most of the hassle of creating new minions to replace lost ones and with some healing spells can make the army better at attrition warfare and last longer in any battle and be an all-round nuisance to the enemy." Gnarl suggested laying out some good ideas.

The ability to revive minions was a powerful power, almost game changing in its application. Just look at how ridiculously powerful the Paladin's Ultimate was at times, and letting normal minions have the ability to use this power would be simply asking for nerfs or outright removal of this ability in any game.

"So priests?" I asked gnarl if that was what he was hinting at though knowing him.

"No Necromancers, with a side ability to conjure spectres and raise dead to further bolster the numbers. Giving them some spells to bind and cripple the enemy would allow a single Necromancer overpower multiple enemies with sheer numbers. Priests are better at healing no doubt but overall they tend to be quite easy to kill while Necromancers are simply notorious for being hard to kill like cockroaches, which is something that would no doubt frustrate our enemies to no end…"

Raising my hand I stopped Gnarl not wanting him to continue his speech, "OK, ok, you have made your point Gnarl. We will use Necromancers as our main healers." Geez the multiverse sure was weird if Necromancers were going to synonymous with Healers. "And our primary support spellcasters?" I asked Gnarl if he had any more ideas.

"Nothing beats a good old White Mage at healing and support." Gnarl said with a shrewd smile on his face. "Though we could go Red Mage for versatility or Black Mage for full on magical assault, Bards and their songs would help a lot too if you prefer to hear music while you go into battle or simply hear their songs in feasts and celebrations."

Okay…I was not going to ask how Gnarl had gotten the information about the White Mage, Red Mage and Black Mages. Final Fantasy is something I would rather leave alone for now.

"Bards seem good and we can even create an orchestral band out of them." Ah, music, I wonder if I could make them play some of the more well-known songs from back home, Food for thought. "Now we just need a Tanky elite minion who can absorb insane amounts of punishments."

"Dragons" Gnarl replied in an instant, "There are only a few creatures and monsters that are more formidable and powerful than Dragons. So, having them in our army would greatly enhance its powers and due to the large variety of Dragons, we are oh so very spoiled for choice. From small Drakes and Wyverns to the large Serpentine Celestials Dragons, Behemoths and Mantas, we have a lot of options and that is not even going into their various elemental powers."

"I really like the sound of that." Artoria said sounding like someone just told her Christmas was here.

"Of course you would." I remarked remembering the Dragon Heart of hers. She really would find dragons fascinating and I was also a bit partial to the idea too. So we would have Dragons as our tanks. That sounds awesome.

"Or we can just leave all this aside and use the good old OG minions." Gnarl said as he projected images of little goofy looking gremlins in various colours.

"Add them too." I said in a heartbeat, those minions really looked like they could lighten up a place and I was sure they would be quite formidable too.

"Of course sire."

And with that I had perhaps unleashed a terrible, terrible menace upon creation.

Meh, I was an Overlord, it was basically my job to unleash terrifying menace upon creation.

######################

It took me a few days to get the Totems of all the minions up and running, after which I was able to pump out quite a considerable force of them and sent them loose upon the dangerous inhabitants of the island.

The flora and fauna proved very troublesome killing quite a lot of my minions during the first few days of fighting but my almost endless numbers prevailed and my losses were almost negligible too as I was simply able to revive the fallen minions with the help of my Blues and Necromancers. Yeah they were bullshit.

You know what was more bullshit than OP Revive Casting minions? Bullshit Tech Priests and their OP **[Construct]** and **[Harvest & Reclaim]** skills that allowed them to construct and repair any and all machinery and structures in a matter of minutes regardless of said machine and structures size. Oh and they could stack it to repair and construct machines and structures faster by working together in groups. They were totally broken in that field.

They were also quite innovative too when creating new things and coming up with all sorts of new gadgets and weapons. Gnarl also keep giving some hints and spoke of some of the old weapons and defences used by the past Overlords and the Tech Priest tried their best to recreate them, though they did not have much success on that front.

Artoria in between had been leading the Mage Knights and some of the few dragons I had created and was actively hunting down some of the more dangerous beasts in the island, while Gnarl was leading the Bards and taming some of more controllable ones for the newly built Bestiary, while I lead some Greens and was collecting samples of the various floras in the island for the Greenhouse.

Geez, some of the plants were much more terrifying than the animals of the islands and that was saying something as the island was host to beasts that could swim in lava, could create blizzards, were made of literal acids and could take over other animals and control them via some bizarre parasitic bullshit. Yeah, I was cursing a lot but that was because I was in a Mini Death World island.

I just hope it just this island that was like this and the rest of the world was tamer in comparison and not worse, or else I would NOPE out of here faster than Flash breaking SPEED.

You know, for a while I entertained the thought that I was in the Pokémon world with how scary the animals were but so far the animals and plants were just too bizarre and scary and alien to me and while the creatures were powerful they were not like Pokémon level powerful.

On a side note, I had given my minions free reign on what name they should take but mostly I had ended up naming quite a lot of them.

Well for now I was currently in the newly built workshop where the Tech Priest were doing all sort of science and magic to create new trinkets, it was like a laboratory and a factory rolled into one as all new technology were researched here and it was here that they were built and assemble for further production.

It was a ship, more specifically and airship, with a wooden hull with metal lined in between, shaped like old wooden ships yet having no sails upon in, making it have a wide open deck with a central tower near the end of the ship. Measuring at about 300 meters in length, 20 meters wide and 40 meters in height, it looked old and classy and unfinished but I knew that this was completed and this would be the final shape of the ship.

"This my Lord" the Tech Priest Boldor said, his enthusiasm unbound as he introduced his latest creation "is the Prototype Airship Victorious, a ship made of metal and wood married in perfect symphony to create the toughest hull capable of withstanding even the harshest punishments and repair all even fatal damage under an hour. Upon its wide open decks one could view the beautiful sceneries as it sailed through the wind with its sharp edges cutting through the air like a hot blade through butter. It is propelled but a powerful magical core that cared not for the laws of physics and the natural forces, negating inertia and gravity with its special array of magical cores and barriers that can even survive the harsh vacuum of the void and take you to distant worlds." Boldor said, pride evident in his voice over the work superb work he had done on the Airship Victorious.

"Alas we don't have proper weapons to mount on the ship's many weapon ports but if what I have been hearing about from the other minions is true, we will be able to fill all of its 20 weapon ports and its bombing bays, though we could use them for transport and cargo bays for now." Boldor informed me.

Well the prototype was good and though the lack of weapons was a glaring flaw, it would have to serve as a transport and cargo ship for now. In fact, with some proper modifications it could even serve as a cruise ship not to mention a really great merchant ship.

"Good job Boldor. Don't worry about the weapons for now I think the ship is fine as it is and is in fact quite suitable for some of things I have in mind." Yep it would do well for diplomatic ventures and trading. Now onto the main question, "It's cost?"

"1,215 Resources including the weapons and upgrades we are going to add on. Though for now we can easily mass produce it at 800 Resources, if we sacrifice some speed and armour of the ship and add only the some low level weaponry." Boldor listed out.

"It is quite cheap." I remarked at the amount "And the build time?"

"545 seconds."

"9 minutes and 5 seconds, that is fast, faster than I expected." Joy evident in my voice, this was quite fast speed.

"We aim to please, Sire. Though I will like to point out that while building this ship one workshop cannot built anything else in their current form and that it would take 25 Tech Priest to fully operate the ships and some 20 to 40 guards to protect it from boarders, not to mention we will have to keep an eye on out resource incomes to truly balance it out the cost of building the ships." Boldor added pointing out the additional logistics of the ship.

"And what of the our new mines? Will they be enough to act as a stable income source?" I asked Boldor about the new mines that we had created in and around the island.

The mines were nothing special in themselves as they were mostly iron mines but the harvested iron and metals could then be converted into 'Resources' which I used as a staple economic resource for my operations. I knew that having a good economy was a must in strategy game and while I was no expert in the subject, I at least knew of the really big economic advantage I had due to the conversion rate and I wanted to make the most out of it by harvesting resources till my coffers overflow.

Incidentally, I had found out that I can convert my 'Resource' into actual materials like gold, silver, iron etc. with 1 Resource = 1000 unit converted material, regardless of the value of the converted material, which meant that I could get only 1000 unit iron and 1000 unit from 1 resource even if gold was much more valuable.

Gnarl explained to me why this was good as in some worlds Gold was hardly a precious metal with how soft and rare it was and metal like iron and copper were more valuable due to their availability and utility and the likes.

The unit was also quite vague and random as it could range from coins to bars depending on the converted material. Gold and silver would be in coins while iron would be bars which would somehow by some obscure reason and magic would correspond to the local unit using some sort of bullshit OP magic. As such in a place where gold coins were used 1 resource would give me 1000 gold coins of the highest quality and that would hold the same for silver and other metals.

No matter how much Gnarl dumb it down for me, I just could not wrap my head around that concept it was just too alien and mind bogglingly complex for me to understand right now. I guess that this was what it meant to be an empire in a multiversal scale. In a way I was filthy rich as hell by most standards but going by the standards of my predecessors I was but a pauper before a king.

Bullshit Overlord and their bullshit powers.

It also dawn to me just how expensive my minions were with Artoria costing more than the wealth of multiple nations combined. Yeah, even economically my predecessors were bullshit and now I had the same economic power in my hand, which I had to increase using all possible means of resource harvesting methods and trade.

"Yes they would be more than enough for now. In fact with your permission sire I would like to set up new Workshops to offload the increasing workload on them as the current workshop is being strain to its limits." Boldor requested, which was something I was already planning to do so anyways.

"Permission granted but only after you guys finish working on the warehouses, armouries and airfields and the dockyards. We would need them to store all the vehicles, ships and all the other things we have been making." Yeah, space was becoming an issue, the island seemed smaller everyday with the expansion I was doing, which was why I had ordered some of my dragons to scout for new lands.

Well after the ship, Boldor showed me a couple of weapons that they had developed so far. The first of which was a cannon that could be mounted on tanks and ships, with the apt name Volcano cannon, as it reduced the targeted area into molten lava via a large energy beam which gave it good AOE attack.

The main issues with the cannon was the range and power and due to space constrains the Tech Priests were not able to test out its full capabilities and tinker out its flaws. Another reason to find new land as the island was just too small for the level of testing that my Tech Priests had in mind.

The second thing Boldor showed me was the Hellbore cannon, which prompted the question, where were they getting these names? Unlike the Volcano cannon the Hellbore had a longer range and was mainly going to be used for precise long range bombardment, which made it perfect for long range sniper artillery action.

Boldor said that the Tech Priest got the idea from the Legend of Galactic Heroes and were trying their best to recreate the same electronic interference that the setting was famous for, which when combined with the magical sensors that were in development would really give them an edge ship to ship combat.

"Of course we have also added several security measures both technological and magical to prevent hacking and copying of tech and we are developing new ones every day." Boldor said enthusiastically.

While I was happy to see my Tech Priests working hard and developing all these technologies, I think I should keep them away from Science Fiction Space Operas for now. Really when I had asked them to develop ships I was mostly thinking water based naval ships not Space Ships, and if the Tech Priests were developing weapons for these ships than the yields were going to be insane. Water based naval ship cannons had nothing on the cannons mounted on space ships, even a low level Science Fiction Setting like LOTGH.

I just hope I can rein them in before they go too far.

As Boldor and I were talking about all the new inventions and the possible places of for the new workshops, one of the browns came rushing in the workshop, stumbling and rolling all the way towards me.

"Sire, sire! Dragons have return! Dragons have returned with big news! Big news, Sire!" The small brown bounced over his place as he gave me the message. Looks like the dragons I had sent on the scouting trip had brought some good news. "Tower sire, landed on tower sire, conversing with Mistress Artoria."

I rushed out of the workshop and headed to the tower where the dragons would be, eager to hear the news that they brought.

There in the large courtyard the five dragons stood before me, they were blue wind dragons, the fastest dragons that I had created with mastery of wind and fire to bring forth terrible firestorms. They had sharp reptilian features with their snout sprouting horned scales and two horns adorn the side of their heads twisted like a ram's horns. They had slender limbs shaped for great mobility and agility with sharp serrated claws that could easily replace the blade of a sword. Even their size was something to behold with them being longer than two buses in length and their wings spanning twice their length though were now folded to accommodate them in the courtyard.

"Greetings, My Liege." The lead dragon, Vale, greeted me, his voice resounding clearly across the courtyard. "We bring news of the new lands we have found."

Did I mention they could talk too? Yeah they could, talking dragons for the win.

"Greetings Vale, it's good to see you too." I greeted back it really was good to see him. I just seem to have grown a soft spot for my dragons. "I hope your mission went well?"

"I thank you for your concerns, my liege. And our mission went well, this world is more populated than we imagined as we found and saw many great kingdoms and cities dotting the continents beyond the isle."

"Let's hear about them then."

"To the north we have found a frozen landscape home to scattered tribes of nomads each different than the last, a bit south of that is a land of elves who inhabit cities surrounded by fertile valleys and vast forests, further south seems to kingdoms inhabited by humans ruled by magicians and west to those kingdoms is a floating island nation once again ruled by human mages. They did not seemed technologically advance though we did spot a myriad of airships."

That sounded quite interesting yet familiar at the same time. Well it seemed that I had found some candidates to trade with.

"We also discovered that this part of the world was separated by a barrier from the rest of the world isolating it in its entirety though we have found that the barrier can be traversed but the only land route is through the elven lands while the sea routes and air routes would be difficult to traverse due to the harsh storms and strong tides. The island we inhabit current is within this sphere and thus I recommend that our operations should start with this nations."

'Now if that was not suspicious than I don't know what will be.'

"Further south we found a large desert continent that was bare save for some wildlife. To the west of the world we found a large continent home to many humans, demi-humans and magical races ruled by an Empire with many smaller nations dotting its borders and island nations at its eastern and western coasts. The Empire while spanning an entire continent seemed to be technologically backwards and were quite behind magically too compared to the other nations despite having the largest magical population compared to other parts of this worlds. Then to the easternmost corners of this world we found lands home to many human and magical creatures and a myriad of kingdoms dotting the vast plains and steeps, it was truly diiverse in culture and technology but nothing to advance."

Wow that was big news. A continent spanning nation, now that was what you would call a legitimate Empire.

"And with this I conclude my report, my liege."

"Good work Vale, get some rest along with your companions and take some time off. You have done enough for now, leave the rest to me for now." I replied congratulating Vale and the other dragons after which I dismissed them.

"Now what am I going to do with this information?" I mused, thinking about my next step.

I wanted to start off my Overlord career as a merchant and gain experience handling things so naturally I would have to start a company of sorts and move on from there. Seems simple enough, let's go that route shall we.

Now what should I name my company? Thinking about it a name came to my mind which oddly fitted me in a really strange way.

"Kuzunoha." Yes that fit. "Watch out world an evil merchant is out to get you."

#####################

 **AN: Done and Done. Geez this was a dozy who knew world building was this hard.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It took me some more time to scout out the neighbouring kingdoms, namely Gallia, Germania, Tristan, Albion and Romania, collectively called the Brimic kingdoms and the continent being called Halkeginia.

The nations had monarchic governments save for Romania which was a Theocracy. Looking over their characteristics I found that my best chance to start my company and enter the Halkeginia markets was via Germania, a nation famed for its merchants and the only nation run by an Emperor who was not descended from Brimir like the other royal houses due of how their government tended to change its Emperor every now and then, with the candidates being selected from the magical populace.

Germania was a great place to start my trade operations. Not only could I easily buy a trading license with some few gold, the goods that were in demand were also something I could easily produce at a very cheap rates which meant that I would be almost unstoppable in that front.

Unless I anger some major players, it should be smooth sailing and I would be able to build quite a powerful base by which I could penetrate the Empire in the east later on after buying the rights to trade to distant lands. Germania was truly lax on that front and was quite willing to explore and find new lands for more profit.

I would easily be able to rise up to the upper ranks of the nobility and reap quite a lot of profits.

"Master, are you sure Germania is a good idea? I mean wouldn't Albion or Tristan make better candidates." Artoria asked me, curious to why I had chosen Germania over the other kingdoms. It seems that an explanation was in order.

"First of all Artoria, Germania is very lax in its religious laws which considering our unique brand of magic and the minions, we would need it least we get branded as heretics and are chased out. Germania while does follow the Brimic religion is much more tolerant on that front.

Secondly, Germania is the biggest of all the kingdoms and has quite the vast amount of untapped resources bigger than Tristan and Albion at any rate. And being a mercantile nation I would have an easier time setting shop due to them giving merchants quite a lot of freedom compared to Tristan and Albion where noble sponsored merchants seem to have greater power than individual merchants.

And thirdly, money talks in Germania and this would allow us to easily get inside the kingdom and let them ignore some of our questionable origins and whatnot. Even the fact that I have a large army of trained soldiers and dragons would be ignored as it is not out of the ordinary in Germania for merchants to have mercenaries in their permanent employ or start a mercenary company of their own."

Hearing my explanation Artoria seemed to understand why I had chosen Germania seriously that kingdom was really lax in its rule. Though by having such a powerful military I guess they could afford to be lax.

"While I can understand your reasoning Master, I still wish we could start in Albion, I really want to see the floating island." Artoria pouted, she really was quite cute when she did that.

"Well you can still see it later on when I set up a branch there under your command." That should calm her down. "For now we better get everything ready for our trip to Germania."

"OK I'll call the others for the meeting." With that Artoria went out to call the others.

I wonder what would be the result of the meeting.

#########################

The meeting was being held in the main study, alongside me, gnarl and Artoria, the various unofficial heads and leaders of the various minions were there. While I was the overall master of all the minions, I needed leaders to which I could delegate tasks since I was still getting the hang of using the minion bond.

In attendance was Aurora, the leader of the Mage Knights, a fiery red head whose figure would be something to die for, clad in a black form fitting suit with a blue cloak and a rapier on her hip.

To her right was Clair, blue eyed blond hair beauty and the leader of the Tech Priests, she was wearing a white sleeveless shirt, black trousers and the trademark red robes of the Tech Priests. She held a staff that held a myriad of gears and crystals giving it the appearance of a halberd.

To Aurora's left was Erika, the leader of the Necromancers. She looked like a young yamato nadeshiko type of beauty with short black hair wearing a green kimono and a red obi and leaf patterns adorning the kimono, giving her a regal appearance.

Behind the girls was Kyle, the leader of the bards, the perfect bishonen minion of mine with long silky brown hair and a face that could charm girls by the dozen. I should hate him for that simple fact but he was my minion thus I could. He was dressed in a white shirt and brown pants, with a red shawl draped around his shoulders with a cowboy hat to top it all off.

I had not called the leader of the dragons as I felt we would not need the dragons in this venture.

"OK now the meeting to begin our economic conquest on Germania begins now." Gnarl announced grabbing everyone's attention. Did he really have to call it that!

"We have gathered quite a lot of information on Germania and thus I have come up with this plan." I began. "Firstly, from what we have gathered we know that we can easily corner the market and become the top merchants in just a few months. But looking at the average profit and income just becoming the top merchant is not enough for us and the southern continent is virtually abandoned and up for the taking, which should further increase our income and bolster our resource harvesting operations once we get the rights to colonise it, which should not be that hard once our prestige rises. That is our main goal here the colonisation of the southern continents."

"If that is our goal than why aren't we simply starting our efforts from there?" Clair asked raising a good point.

"Because I am currently not in the mood to run a kingdom yet." And boy was it strange to say that with a straight face. "I want to gather sufficient experience before starting my empire and for that building up a power base would go a long way on that front and Germania gives us plenty of opportunity to do so." I explain my reasoning. While this world was interesting, I did not think it would be a good place to build my empire and capital, I wanted to start somewhere special.

Clair nodded understanding my point.

"Anyways methods would be purely economic which would make the Tech Priests a vital part of this operation. Once we set up shop, we would then begin to introduce new things to the market and promote innovation and start an industrial revolution which should allow us to easily expand our operations further during this stages I expect that due to our magic and technology we should be the leaders of the new markets and dominate even the old existing ones. Once done we should have a solid grip over all sectors whether they are military, magical or even plain old agriculture.

I want us to be able an economic powerhouse and the most successhul company that Halkeginia has ever seen and we would begin it by starting from Germania." I said laying out my plans.

"So we are going to rule from the shadows and by coin, master?" Erika commented, looking quite amused.

"That's, a surprisingly accurate description, Erika." I answered "But I have no intentions of rulling Germania what so ever. I'll leave that to the Emperor. I simply want to play the role of a greedy, slimy merchant for now."

"A profession that the past Overlords would approve, it fits with the overall theme too." Gnarl commented.

Smiling at the comment I continued with the briefing.

"Clair this is what I want the Tech Priest to do create a magical forge that can manufacture and create armour, weapons and items and one that can be used and maintained by non Tech Priests but make sure that the secret to creating this forges remain a secret. This would be vital for not only this operation but also for future projects too."

"It would be my pleasure master. The Tech Priest would easily be able to create such forges as we are already using methods similar to the forge you have suggested."

"Good, now Kyle while I am off playing merchant I want you and the bards to spread out in Germania and Halkeginia and listen for any information you can find and see if you can introduce good music to this people."

"By the time I and the bards are done there won't any news or secrets that would be out of our reach. I would also take great pleasure in educating these people in fine music." Kyle said with a savage grin on his face. I really wondered why my Bards acted like bloodthirsty murderers when it came to music, must be their passion I guess. Though using them as spies was a risky move but not something that they could not handle. There was no such thing as a weak support minion in my army with even the bards being pseudo-assassins.

"Next Erika, you will not be going as part of Kuzunoha." I said surprising my lead necromancer. "I want you and the necromancers to create a separate company whose aim would be to learn about the healing spells and medicines of Halkeginia and then see if we can introduce better ones or not. Healers have great reputations and this should allow you to gain quite a lot of influence which in case our main operation fails should still allow us to have a hold on Germania. Become the top healers of Halkeginia that would be yours and the necromancers' mission."

Not only was I making a separate company to maintain my influence in Halkeginia, the idea of introducing the Red Cross was not a bad thing too. Honestly I could see how such an organisation could help the nations as a whole with famines and outbreaks of diseases and natural disasters.

"As you command, master." Erika replied with a bow. It would be fun seeing the necromancers being hailed as good healers and doctors.

"Aurora the mage knights would be vital in providing protection to all Kuzunoha branches, stores and trading caravans and vessels. So I expect them to prepare well for this task while at the same time keep a low profile."

"The Mage Knights hear and obey, sire." Aurora replied with a salute, she seemed quite happy about it too.

The rest of the meeting was spent tinkering out the full details of the plans but we were sure that even if something goes wrong we could handle it.

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2 weeks later

I was finally in Germania, more specifically in the port town of Rusten. It was both a fishing port and a port for airships, surrounded by vast mountains to the south and east, a sea to the north and vast farmlands and vineyards to the west, it was one of Germania's top trading hub and one of its top economic centres dealing in all sorts of goods from metals to clothes and food, there was little that it did not deal in.

I felt a bit strange when I arrived in my airship and there was no commotion at the docks. Sure there were some people snooping around my ship but nothing major happened. It looked like that the people were so used to seeing foreign airships of other nations that they hardly gave mine a glance and went back to work.

After getting off the docks I proceeded to hire of the guides and began a small tour of the city. It was also a good thing I had made the effort to learn German or else even getting a guide would have been tough as hell. Artoria was stuck in the island still as she had yet to master the language even with all translation and language learning spells to speed up the process.

"…and that is the famous smithy of Hephaestus, Germania's top smith and enchanter, few can match the goods she produces." My guide one of the local, Bell Carnell, said as he gave me the tour of the city.

He was a pretty boy who looked too innocent for words, with white hair and a baby face he somehow reminded me of a Rabbit. Even his words were only of praise and positive attitude, and I had yet to hear him speak badly of even one store, though he was a bit hesitant to call some of the stores good but he also did not outright call them bad.

'I don't think that is a good thing in a guide.' I thought as I thought about qualities of a good guide. Sometimes guides have to use harsh language to keep the tourist away from some of the worst places for their own safety. It was another matter whether or not the tourists heed the advice of the guide or not.

After sometime we were soon our destination, the Merchant Guild of Rusten, it was a large building that was like a small castle, with large stone walls and lavish decorations of golden goblins and silver horses in the front of the building and the small towers. Even the signboard looked lavish with a rich red background, jaded green letters and gold and blue flower patterns to finish it all, for some reason it gave me a feeling of a Chinese merchant guild than a German one.

"Here we are," Carnell said pointing at the guild with an outstretched hand "this is the Merchants Guild of Rusten, the pride and joy of all of Rusten and Germania, the HQ of the Merchant Guild of Germania and the best place to get a drink." Carnell proclaimed he really must like this place. "Here you will get you Merchant Licence Mr Hyoudou."

"So do you know anything about the process? Any common knowledge that is uncommon for a foreigner like me." I asked Carnell curious to know what getting a licence would entail. While it was fairly easy to get one, there were things like starting bonuses and the likes which I might miss in my ignorance due to not being a local and being out of the loop.

Carnell for some reason seemed to approve of my question, "Well there are some things that foreign merchants ignore when getting their merchant licence in Germania, namely the starting deposit and their accounts."

"And what are those?"

"Well to put it simple terms it is the starting capital and initial investment that the merchant has to make when getting their licence. The deposit starting from 10 ecus and with not upper limit is used to buy the guild to help the new merchant rent or buy stores, buy their initial goods etc., with the unspent money being returned to the merchant or kept in their accounts as the Guild also serve as a bank, with all that it entails from money lending to investments and money transations. You name it, we do it.

Most foreigners ignore this, as this is very common knowledge in Germania with most aspiring merchants work their hardest to save a tidy sum of money to start a new business with the help of the guild. The guilds vast contacts and resources ensure that all budding merchants get the best deal for their new business even helping them run their business by providing advisors for free for the first year after which they would have to pay for the advisor or provide an employment contract, which said advisor should agree upon.

This set up not only helps new merchants but also boosts the overall economy of the nation but aims at ensuring that even the remotest region of Germania is prosperous as its neighbouring villages and towns and be an undeveloped area."

"Geez, that is a big economic conspiracy." I commented, really the Merchant Guild really had a lot of power, if what Carnell said was true. They were practically running the economy with their advisors no doubt guiding new merchants to areas and projects that would help the guild in the long run.

"Nonononono! NO! The Merchant Guild is not in some grand economic conspiracy! They are just helping." Carnell said as he started flailing about.

"Your words don't convince me." I deadpanned. Hey it was fun teasing the boy.

"Why won't you believe me?" Carnell wailed and I could see tears forming in his eyes.

I had to laugh at the scene, it was quite funny. "Anyways, Carnell thanks for helping me and once again thanks for the info." I said as I handed him a bag of coins.

"Even without counting them I can tell that this is too much Mr Hyoudou." Carnell protested trying to give back the bag.

"Keep it, you've earned it by giving me the information about the starting bonuses." I said firmly refusing to take back the money I had handed him. Ignoring his protests I entered the Guild hall, cracking a smile at the boy's protest, he truly was innocent for words.

######################

The guild hall looked more like a restaurant and a bar that was filled to the brim with busy merchants and busier guild attendants. Each table was filled with merchants discussing business and about the latest news as they drank and ate or simply went over the piles of papers and maps, with the attendants moving to and fro, carrying casks of wines, crates of goods and piles of papers, all the while guiding some of the merchants to their destinations and helping some of the merchants with their planning. It was really a sight to see.

One of the attendants helped me to the reception table where I would get my licence. Like most guilds in fantasy it was manned by a beautiful receptionist that had the aura of a caring big sister.

"I'm married, so please stop looking with those eyes dear sir." Instead of a kind greeting I was met with instant rejection. Curses! "I welcome you to the Merchant Guild, what can I do for you." The receptionist greeted, though it was a bit late for that.

"I am here to get a merchant licence." I replied going straight to business I had already lost my chance with the receptionist so no point sullying my image more. Though those damn tits, doe! Was she secretly an elf, those were the popular choice for receptionists.

The receptionist took out some papers and documents and handed them to me. "Please fill out these forms and after which you will have to pay 1 ecu to get the merchant licence."

I was really surprised that it was so simple. The form itself did not ask much but some rudimentary questions like name, date of birth, parents' name, etc., all of which was fairly easy to fill out and there was nothing that would later prove problematic too like place of origin etc. Germania was after all quite accepting of foreigners.

"Um, is there any other way I can pay the fee?" I asked wanting to know whether or not I could pay using other means like goods or items. While I had enough money to pay the fees several times over, I wanted to know what other ways I could pay with.

"No, we only accept ecus or gold equivalent to one ecu for the fees. We don't accept items, goods, silver or other precious metals for registration." The receptionist explained with practiced ease, making me think that it was not the first time she had heard the question.

"Well I do have gold coins but I don't know how they would stack up to the local equivalent." I said handing over one gold coin to the receptionist.

Taking the gold coin and looking at it carefully the receptionist seemed impressed with its make. The gold coin, was oval in shaped with three perfectly space lines at the bottom and tope with the image of a panda chewing on bamboo shoots at the centre on one side and an oriental dragon on the other.

Using the resource conversion system I had converted come resources into gold coins and each coin had for some reason come out in this shape. Not that I was complaining as it was quite classy in appearance.

The receptionist handed the coin over to one of the attendant and sent him to evaluate the coins value, in the meantime I decided to inquire about the deposit and how the guild would help me set up my shop.

"What about the initial deposit?" I asked and the receptionist was surprised at the question. Looks like she was only expecting me to simply take my merchant licence and go away. For some reason I really wanted to shout 'in your face' at her, don't know why I just did.

"Well I am surprised that you know about it. I must say that you are quite well informed Mr Hyoudou." The receptionist said looking genuinely impressed.

"Let's just say I was lucky to come across the information." I replied back, not sure whether to feel happy that she was impressed due to the fact that most of the foreign merchants were idiots for not doing proper research. Granted even I had gain this particular bit of info due to Carnell.

"Well luck sometimes does play a bit part in this profession so I must say that you will go a long way if your current luck holds." The receptionist commented, her eyes shining with hidden interest. Now any other time I would have interpreted that as a romantic pass but due to her being married and me not willing to be a house-wrecker, I interpreted her growing interest as something more nefarious and putting me down as someone to watch out for. "Now how much do you wish to deposit for now and what kind of vault do you want to have access to?" she asked me.

"Vaults?" Now that was something Carnell didn't mention. "I thought you guys simply dealt in safes."

"Well we do have safes and lockers but that is only for middle class merchants. For the wealthier merchants and nobles we have underground magical vaults, which are used to hold larger sums of money and artefacts of great importance." The receptionist explained, somehow making me question 'What is this Gringotts?'

"If you have heard about the initial deposit than you would also know that we the Merchant Guild also act as banks, so it should come to no surprise that we have such feature." The reception smiled as she was no doubt enjoying my baffled state. In hindsight I really should have known they had a feature like this. "Now I will once again ask how much money do you want to deposit, Mr Hyoudou."

"5,000,000 gold coins." I replied and really wish that I had a camera to capture the astonished expression of the receptionist. Really that was a lot of gold coins which when converted to yen would amount in billions or near trillion, and yet due to the broken nature of my conversion system that amount was while high was not out of my limitations.

"The Square Golden Vaults will be assigned to you." The receptionist said still having a dazed expression on her face. "You really are someone to watch out for Mr Hyoudou." The reception said her interest in me growing by the minute.

"Sorry but I am not into married women." I swiftly replied, really I was not that far gone that I would stoop to seduce another man's wife.

The receptionist looked at me blankly and said in a toneless voice, "Yes, I'm married, what a pity."

Um, was there something I was missing?

"Anyways, I guess I should send some attendants to your ship to unload the money Mr Hyoudou." The receptionist said as she called some attendants.

"No need for that, I have the money right here with me." I said as I patted the small backpack at my side. It took me a while but I had managed to create special magical storage bags and rings, really they were quite convenient for carrying a large amount of things like money and other items. "I only have a variety of goods in my ship."

"Truly?" The receptionist asked looking at me with disbelief.

"Um, yes, don't you guys have magical bags with high carrying capacity?" I asked back, really with the powerful magic Vale had seen them using, I thought that this would be something that they would already have.

"No, no we have no such thing." The receptionist said with a blank look on her face. I wonder what was going on in her mind now.

"So I guess this would be quite revolutionary then. Well another item to put for sale." I said nonchalantly, as I took out a small note book and made a note to create more storage bags for sale. I was going to be a smug prick and absolutely greedy bastard, so I should take pleasure in flipping the worldview of others upside down.

It was an oddly satisfying experience.

"…"

"Now when am I going to see the vaults?" I asked the reception bringing her out of her dazed state.

"This way sir." She replied politely, she still seemed to be reeling from the revelation. Which I would admit is quite a big one and like I said revolutionary.

The receptionist lead me inside the Guild hall and into an underground system of tunnels at the end of which was a flight of stairs leading to a giant cavern. White floating orbs of lights illuminated the giant cavern that seemed to be bigger than the city above. Giant pillars both natural and artificial supported the cavern decorated with rich with marble and red sandstones, with various statues of made of both precious stones and metals dotted the scenery.

I saw floating platforms filled with the guild attendants carrying trolleys of gold, silver and gems to and fro as they floated from one platform to another with their destinations being one of the many vaults carved on the walls and pillars of the cavern. There were even bridges made of both stone and metal with some being still under construction as I saw parts of the cavern being worked upon and being ready for what was no doubt new expansion of the cavern.

I even saw what was like guard towers and fortresses dotting parts of the cavern. All in all it was a truly astonishing sight.

I felt like I had entered another world altogether.

"While we could not compare to the grand underground cities of the dwarves, the Vaults of Rusten is our pride and joy. Let it not be said that we can't protect the riches of Germania and the hard earn money of our merchants."

As if on cue I saw several large reptilian creatures fly over us, "Dragons." I mumbled out, looking at the familiar creatures.

"Wyverns actually." The receptionist corrected, "Germania does not have a large number of dragon population unlike Albion but we do have an abundance of Wyverns in our wilds and caves. In fact this very cavern was home to a brood of wyverns which as you can see have been tamed to guard our vaults."

You know, I got the distinct feeling that she was getting back at me for shattering her perceptions before.

She then led me to the centre of the cavern towards the central pillars where I could see were vaults fashioned in manner of small manors, almost three stories in height and who knows how deep and wide, the front of which were giant gates with towers flanking its sides and several wyverns perched on said towers.

Several of them sported a myriad of colours and statues which seemed oddly appropriate though odd, as I also spotted several vaults that had dull grey colour and no décor.

Even from a distance I could see shimmering paper thin golden barriers hugging the surface of the vaults with several blue and purple barriers overlapped each other given the vaults the image of a far off illusion.

It was truly beautiful and for once I could say that it was something I could not have dreamed of ever creating in my life, despite my now bullshit OP Tech Priests who could readily create anything in the multiverse given enough time and resources.

"Beautiful." I could not help but say, lost in the admiring the various vaults before me, "Truly beautiful."

The reception simply smiled at my words and led me to one of the dull grey vaults. 'So these were unclaimed huh.' I deduced once I compared the dull grey vaults to the other decorated vaults. The Grey Vaults were oddly lifeless to me for some reason.

"And this will be your personal vault and if luck permits your family vault too." The receptionist said as she handed me a transparent white orb with a key inside it. "Now Mr Hyoudou, please take this orb and claim your vault by placing it on the pedestal before the door." She instructed.

"I uh don't have to say some fancy words do I?" I joked, though knowing how the current culture resembled a bit like old medieval Europe I just hoped that I don't have to say long flowery speeches to claim a simple vault. Really Harry Potter fanbase went really overboard with that.

"No need. Simply place the orb in the pedestal and everything would be sorted out." The receptionist replied, her eyes shining with unbidden interest somehow looking forward to what would happen next.

'Now is that not ominous at all.' I thought as I tried not to let the chills get to me.

Placing the orb in the pedestal I waited, I waited for something to happen, like the orb shattering into pieces of light or the wind picking up or simply something. Yet nothing happened.

Looking back at the receptionist I could not help but ask her "Was something supposed to happ-" my words were cut of as I felt my right had suddenly move by itself and grab the orb with the Overlord Gauntlet materialising without me willing it into existence.

'This was not supposed to happen. What is going on?' I thought, shocked at seeing the gauntlet materialise. Stranger still I felt my magic course through my body and get sucked into the orb, red lights flooding the orb as it sucked my magic like a black hole.

I soon felt my very body being affected as my magic was completely sucked dry as the orb started taking my very life force.

I tried to stop it, I tried to stop it using every means possible, yet I failed to even move my right hand as I felt my fingers grabbing it in a vice grip refusing to let go even at my command.

Then suddenly I felt the pull on my life force lessen as I felt something being pulled into existence from the very depths of my soul.

Power.

That was the only word I could describe it as. Pure unbridled power, power that was beyond reckoning, something that no mortal should hold an ancient power was thus being brought into existence from the depths of my soul. Making me wonder if this was the power of the ancient Overlords, my predecessors, yet for some reason I felt that it was wrong to think of it that way.

Red light flooded the orb and I saw the orb break apart unleashing a torrent of wave of magical energy. Streams of red and black magical energies flooded the area spinning and turning like serpents as they created a dome around me.

I don't know how long they lasted but the sight before me would forever be ingrained in my mind, the beautiful sight of the red and black dancing in a rhythm of a silent song, clashing with each other yet coming to an unseen truce and beginning their dance anew.

It was a sight that would forever be with me, right up there with the birth of Artoria.

The streams of red and black magical energies danced and danced escaping the dome and ascending upwards and finally descending in a spiral, slowly converging into a single beam of magical power and striking the pedestal, the force knocking me backwards into the stunned crowd of attendants.

"Is it over?" I heard someone asked but while everything seemed silent and calm, I knew it was not over.

Looking towards the pedestal I saw that the pedestal had transformed into something else.

It now sported four dragon statues coiling around the pedestal and grabbing the top of the pedestal with their heads facing the four directions. The top of the pedestal had also changed now resembling a stone bowl and the key from the orb was floating above it yet even it had changed shape as it now had a twin dragon heads biting a green gem at its base and red scales patterns on its body with its end now looking more like a strange serrated claw.

The key glowed with the same power that had being brought to life. It slowly descended upon the pedestal, till there was a distinct click of a key being entered into a lock. Then like an unseen had turned it the key rotated till the sound of a lock being open rang in the cavern.

Power, power flooded across the pedestal as a red stream of magical energy rushed form the pedestal into the earth and towards the massive gates of the vault.

The red stream crashed upon the gates swallowing the vault whole as I saw the vault dessapear underneath the wave of magical energy.

I hear the sound of cracking stones, groaning metal and creaking wood and I knew then and there that the red wave of energy was transforming the vault. So, I waited, I waited with the panicking attendants and the silent receptionist, waiting for the red wave to finish its work, waiting for it to end.

I don't know how long it took but I waited patiently, not uttering a word despite the panicking attendants' inquiries and simply stared at the vault.

The energy slowly dissipated after sometime leaving behind a sight that awe all who saw it.

The vault now sported royal red colour, with golden banners with blue borders and the symbol of a red dragon woven on it. Statues of dragons and knights adorned the walls of the vault with the two mighty dragon statues stood on the sides of the gates and in the front of the pedestal I saw a giant red dragon made of strange unknown material tower protectively over a black ivory throne with a statue of me sitting on it, with the overlord gauntlet in my left hand and a scaled red gauntlet with a green gem in my and at its base I saw the statue of Artoria kneeling before the throne like a knights of old.

The receptionist went toward the throne and I saw that there was something written beneath it and she read the words aloud.

"Hail Issei Hyoudou, the Immortal Overlord, Master of Minions and the Red Dragon Emperor."

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AN: Yeah screw subtlety.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The receptionist whose name I learned, Syr, led me to the VIP room where I was now waiting for the guild master.

The room as a whole was quite grand with some expensive décor like suits of armours and stone statues. Great lighting from the large windows and artificial lights, a large round table in the middle surrounded by comfortable sofas and bookshelves containing books and scrolls in the corners, All in all a great room to conduct a meeting.

The whole ordeal in the Vaults had ousted me as not only as The Overlord but had also created the misconception that I was a foreign ruler. Which while was not true was technically not false either. In a way I was a foreign ruler, I just had yet to create an Empire of my own.

"Please wait here your majesty, the Guild Master is on his way." Syr said, now acting more like a maid than a receptionist.

Despite my requests and protest she had yet to stop addressing me with 'your majesty', protocols she said. It was bad enough with my minions who were still calling me master or my liege back in the island and now even in strange lands I was being called with another pompous title.

'It's all part of being The Overlord.' Gnarl had said and while it was understandable, those titles got a bit old after hearing them so many times.

"Really it's just a title. I'm not some ruler of a foreign nation." I protested yet again.

"And yet your ship, men, wealth and your runic names state otherwise, your majesty." Syr retorted and thinking about it she did have a point.

"Or I could be just a pompous greedy merchant with too much wealth and a big ego."

"Then sadly this world is inhabited by honest hardworking and incorruptible merchants." Syr deadpanned, geeze, even some dense like Ichika would have notice the sarcasm in her voice.

I knew that I could not convince her for now and rather I focused on convincing the Guild Master, I might have better luck with him.

In the meantime Syr was attending me as if she were my personal maid.

"Were you a maid before?" I could not help but ask out loud.

"For some time yes." Syr replied, interest shinning in her eyes again. Was I really that interesting? "How did you know your majesty?"

"Your behaviour simply screams maid to me." and it was really obvious to someone who had played multiple games based on seducing maids. The developers really were not mucking around when it came to crafting the behaviour of professional maids though some really just went full fantasy and kinky types.

Now I am missing my games. I wonder what new games have been released back home.

"I don't know whether to be flattered or horrified your majesty." Syr replied, levelling me a glare.

"Ugh, just because I ogled you a bit you're thinking me as some sort of molester." I was not, I had healthy interest in the female anatomy with my main focus on the life giving breasts that carried and nurtured the dreams of mankind. "Even though I would admit that it would be a sin to not ogle you at all. Having such a perfect body with the right proportions, light grey hair and eyes matching you white supply skin and breasts that are simply perfect which makes me want to do all sort of things with it."

OK, I can see why she was being cautious with me.

"I…I really don't know if I should be flattered or smack you in the face, regardless of what diplomatic incident I cause, for the words you just said." Syr said, her face cheeks red with anger and embarrassment as she was trying to no doubt resist the urge to beat me black and blue but was restraining herself from doing so as to not cause a big incident.

Rubbing the back of my head I let loose a nervous laugh at her predicament, "I have been said to be overly honest and expressive when it comes to my passions."

"That I can see but word of advice Mr Hyoudou, please tone that down a bit or else you will not only break many maidens heart but also earn yourself the wrath of many women." Syr advised me but I doubt that I would be breaking hearts like the blond playboy of my school.

"I doubt I would be able to stop myself from showing my passions but I will thank you for your advice Syr." I replied honestly. While I knew my behaviour was not earning me any points it was part of my charm and personality, so I doubt I would be easily be able to tone it down at will. In fact I had already tone it down significantly in the past few months.

"Then I can only pray to Brimir to empower the blows of all those heartbroken maidens and enact their rightful retribution upon you." Syr said as she held her hands in a silent prayer.

"Oi! Aren't you supposed to be praying for my continued health?!" I could not help but protest.

"'Let the wicked receive their rightful punishment by the hands of their victims.'" Syr quoted "And by your attitude I like to believe my prayers are justified."

"Geez low opinion much?"

"My opinion would only be proven false if in the future you do not create a 'Royal Harem'." Syr retorted, her words were piercing my heart like a poisoned dagger.

That was simply not fair. Now while I doubt that Syr knew about my dreams to become a Harem King and was looking down on said dream, she had unknowingly hit me in my weak spot for maximum damage.

"…" really what could I say to that.

Good thing for me an attendant came in and announced that the Guild Master was coming.

The door opened revealing a familiar face to me, Bell Carnell.

Gone was the tattered brown trench coat, brown fingerless gloves, black trousers and brown boots, in their place he wore a black waist coat, black pants and a red shirt and a blue tie.

"We meet again Mr Hyoudou." Bell greeted me with the same innocent smile, the very same one that he wore as a guide.

"And here I thought you were an honest man Carnell. I now see that your greed knows no bounds as you are trying to rob me again." I could not help but send a friendly jab against the boy. Despite his status as the Guild Master, I was having trouble picturing him as anything other than a free spirited guide and adventurer.

"Who me? Never, I only take money that I have rightfully earned." Carnell said innocently tilting his head to the side.

I could not help but grin at his innocent behaviour. My, my who is the greedy merchant now?

"Then you will be glad to know that you will be earning a lot more. Let's get down to business shall we. After all they say business before pleasure"

"Wise words, your majesty, wise words." Carnell said bowing and taking his seat.

"Now before we start I am not a royal or a king or a ruler, so please drop the majesty. I am simply a magician who is trying to set up a business." I told Carnell not wanting to deal with the whole ruler thing yet, it was an exercise in Diplomacy that I did not want to deal with so early in my career as the Overlord. "The Emperor is just a title and not everyone who carriers the title of an Emperor is a ruler or king of a nation."

"So, I guess I should just treat you like a really wealthy merchant." Carnell stated.

"Yes." I confirmed, "That is what I want." Now why was Syr not reasonable like Carnell and drop the whole royalty issue. Stubborn woman, she was.

"Fair enough, that would make things much easier." Carnell said looking quite happy at my confirmation. It seems like that he was also not looking forward to deal with a foreign ruler too. "Now on to business shall we. I trust that by now you have transferred the money to your account?"

"Yes."

"Now all that is left is arranging a suitable region based on your preferences for your new business. So what are your preferences Mr Hyoudou?" Carnell asked and I realised that he was in fact asking me about my business plans and whether or not they coincided with my preferences.

"Well for starters, I am thinking of building a general store that sells a variety of products but on a bigger scale, like a small market place if you will. So I would need a large open area to construct the market. If that is not possible I would like to buy out some abandon buildings or some run down area of a town or city and convert them to shops and market." I said listing out my needs, it did not sound grand but I was going to make them grand.

Carnell seemed to be deep in thought as he went over my demands.

"Well there are quite a lot of areas I can come up with that fit your requirements though before I make some recommendations is there something you want to add?" Carnell asked.

"Well…" now that I think about it there was one thing I would need to add, "I will need to build a small air-dock to handle my airships, most of my products would be taking coming through this method."

Carnell seemed intrigued at that, "Truly, in that case I have some suitable areas where you can set up shop." Motioning to one of his attendants, Carnell ordered them to bring some maps.

The attendants worked fast as they brought the maps and spread them on the table.

Carnell then proceeded to show me the areas which would be perfect for my request. There were several areas that could serve me well. All the areas were either trade centres or budding economic centres, with great domestic and foreign trade exposure. Even Rustan was included in the list of places.

Seeing that I had deposited quite a fair amount of money, I guess that I could easily set up at least two albeit small branches in areas Carnell had listed.

One here in Rustan, which was a good way to keep in contact with the guild and it was a good trade centre with even docks in place and I guess I could build, buy or rent warehouses for my goods later on and another in some other places

"Carnell I want to buy plots of lands or buildings that are for sale in Rustan and any other place you can. I want you to use all the money I have deposited till there is nothing left and I mean every last single coin should be used. I will make additional deposits later on, so buy everything you feel is good enough and even then if there are some money left, buy some more till the vault is empty." The places were good and I was looking forward to the shops I would be building here. By giving Carnell the permission to freely spend the money I was taking a risk but it was not like I could do any better as I was unaware of suitable economic hotspots and the property values.

It was also highly unlikely that I would be able to convince others to sell their properties to me as I was a virtual unknown and did not have much reputation or prestige yet.

Carnell looked like I had told him Christmas was here, grinning he said, "Well it would take at least two months to sort everything out like contacting the owners, creating the documents and transferring ownerships of the properties and a myriad of other legal works." That sounded fair enough in fact I should say that it was quite fast too.

Is it too late to mention that the guild will take a 10% cut of the total initial deposit as fees to help set up your business?" Carnell said with a sweet smile on his face, leaving me gaping at the new information.

"Yes." I deadpanned. I should be angry at him but well I was expecting something of this sort so it was no big deal and I had deposited a large sum to counter it too, "Though I must say that you are a greedy rabbit, Carnell."

"Rabbit?!" Carnell said trembling in his seat.

Eh? Is it some sort of taboo word for him?

"Why is it always a rabbit?" Carnell said clenching his hands tightly and I now feared that he might draw blood due to his now growing anger.

"Why?! Why can't anyone find a better nickname than a rabbit?" Carnell cried, somehow teleporting to a corner and drawing circles.

"Guild Master! Control Yourself!" Syr shouted smacking Carnell in the head and dragging him back to his seat. "Forgive him Mr Hyoudou, the Guild Master has been traumatised due being nicknamed 'Rabbit' and 'White Rabbit' by almost everyone he meets." 'Even though he fits the description to a tee.' Syr added under her breath.

The handing me some documents, Syr said, "Please read and sign the documents after confirming everything is in order."

Reading over the simple documents I found that it had everything listed in it that we had discussed, so without a worry I signed the document.

"That would be all Mr Hyoudou."

With that the meeting ended and I bade them farewell and headed back to my ship and back to the island.

 **############################**

Watching the strange yet powerful boy leave, Syr could not help but let loose a sigh of relief. Really she was simply not used to dealing with such high profile and powerful individuals.

How did the Guild Master even manage handle such individuals on a day to day basis without being overcome with stress? She surely could not handle such meetings at all. Guess that was why Bell Carnell was the Guild Master.

"Well that was interesting." The guild master said as he relaxed in his seat. "Unusual but interesting nonetheless."

Really that was all he had to say.

"Sir, you do know that we might have just given a foreign power an opportunity to gather Intel on Germania before invading us." Syr said, pointing out the possibility of Hyoudou being a spy for another country.

"Well if that is the case then he is the worst spy ever and his country is quite foolish to let their royals do the spying for them." Carnell replied calmly.

'Well at least he seemed to have thought about that possibility.' Syr thought,

"Or they are damn smart to have a giant distraction like him to gather attention while the others lurk in the shadows." Bell added, really with the way Issei presence had being announced, there was no way any major player in Germania won't keep an eye on him.

'Now that was a scary notion.' Syr admitted. Really all the act could really be a giant distraction.

"Still why in the world would a Royal want to be a merchant?" Syr asked, trying to understand the reason for it.

"Well personal wealth for one." Bell answered, as he also tried to think of the reason for Issei's actions. "Not all members of the royal family are treated equally and sometimes don't get wealthy fiefdoms like their siblings. So Mr Hyoudou might be trying to increase his personal wealth for that reason or he is simply dissatisfied with his current wealth and is an ambitious boy.

Or it could be that his nation while quite rich is only now opening their borders to foreign trade and Hyoudou is given the task of expanding their domestic markets. It's hard to assume anything without getting more facts and information, so for now it is better to wait and watch."

'That seems reasonable for now.' Syr admitted they really had little information to work with for now. "And his titles? They aren't something one can easily ignore, it is sure to cause some uproar among the nobility and may even seek to capture him to try and learn his secrets." Syr asked, really with titles like 'The Immortal Overlord' and 'Red Dragon Emperor' many nobles would be trying to pry the secrets of immortality of him, using any means at their disposal.

"That is something Mr Hyoudou would have to deal with himself. The Guild cannot afford to protect him from such threats and the only help we would be able to provide him would be financial aid and nothing more. This is not something the Guild would be able to survive if they tried to interfere with." Bell replied, it was a bit cold hearted of him but he had to look towards his guild first.

While immortality seemed tempting and Bell was interested in it, the explosive nature by which the titles were revealed had given it too much exposure to safely pursue. Bell did not doubt that even now some spies of the nobles would have heard it by now and by the end of the month the entirety of Halkeginia would be aware of the news about an immortal walking among them.

This was something that even the Emperor of Germania might even personally intervene in.

"All we can do for Hyoudou is our duty by providing him advisors, a place to start his business and try to keep a minimum contact with him. Associating with him at this early stage might make us targets for those who go after him."

Syr raise an eyebrow at that, what did the guild master mean by 'this early stage'? Thinking about it Syr realised what the Guild Master was planning for.

"That is quite devious of you Guild Master. By keeping minimum contact with Mr Hyoudou you would be seen as only acquaintances for now, which would not draw danger to our guild, while Mr Hyoudou would either prove himself too dangerous a target to put down or get killed. Later on if he manages to survive and prove himself. The advisor our guild would provide by then would have naturally raised the opinion of our guild in his mind after which we could start building up a more cordial relationship. A long term plan that is both safe and rewarding." Syr was truly in awe at her guild master's plan one that required little to no work on their part and yet allowed the guild to be prepared for the worst of scenarios.

"Uh, that was not my plan." Bell admitted his plan was to simply cut ties with Hyoudou and whether the storm that was sure to follow. "But yours is a better plan let's go with that. in fact I am assigning you as Hyoudou's advisor, make sure that he has a good opinion of our guild and build up a more cordial relationship with him." Yeah, with Syr as Hyoudou's advisor Bell was sure that the Guild would benefit a lot, blissfully unaware the horrified look Syr was sending his way, Bell drank his afternoon tea.

"Now that we have an advisor for Hyoudou, I better start looking into the suitable properties to buy for Hyoudou." Taking out one of the gold coins Hyoudou had given to him as his reward earlier, Bell could not help but admire it. "Really he must be a rich bastard, just one of this gold coins is worth 49 ecus and he brought thousands of it."

"What did you say Guild Master?" Syr said eyes wide at the implication of his statement. "49 ecus!"

"I said this gold coins are worth 49 ecus when I appraised them." Bell said confused at why Syr looked like she had seen the Emperor running around naked while stealing wine barrels from a local store. "I'm quite sure we could manage some few thousand of this gold coins."

"Guild Master, Mr Hyoudou did not just deposit some thousand gold coins." Syr corrected her guild master; she really was unsure how he would take the news. 5 million gold coins was already a lot of money but the new value just shot that value through the roof. Even Syr was at a loss of how they would be spending all that money. She was really unsure about how much property they could buy with that. A quarter of Germania? Half of Germania? Or Brimir forbid the whole of Germania?

'And Hyoudou wants us to spend all that money!' it was then Syr decided whether or not Hyoudou was a king or not, his wealth was truly worthy of one.

Bell was getting annoyed at being ignored he could not understand why Syr seem so shocked at hearing the value of the coin. 'Hyoudou must have deposited quite a large sum of money.'

With that thought in mind Bell asked Syr again, "So how much did Hyoudou deposited? Fifty thousand gold coins?" at which Syr shook her head.

'Now that is surprising, 50,000 is already a large sum.' So Bell went for a higher number.

"Seventy Thousand?"

"…"

"No, so a hundred thousand?" Bell asked going for a really big amount, by conversion that amount was already pushing half a million ecus, which was truly an outrageous sum of money.

"No." Syr said, the number was high but it was still so less, so very less.

Hearing Syr's reply Bell could see why Syr was horrified at the rate of conversion. So, he went higher…

"Two Hundred Thousand?"

…and higher…

"Five Hundred Thousand?"

…and higher still.

"A million gold coins?"

Great Brimir he had already reached almost a million gold coins which were worth forty-nine million ecus. Yet Syr was telling him that he had still not hit the mark!

"Just tell me how much he has deposited Syr?" Bell finally said in frustration.

"Five million gold coins, which after conversion leaves us with 245 million ecus, giving the Guild a total commission of 24,500,000 ecus, with the total balance being 221,500,000 ecus left to buy the properties." Syr drone, the number going through her mind in repeat, it was an outrageous profit for the guild and an outrageous sum of money for the guild to handle.

'And Mr Hyoudou said that he was going to deposit more, later on.' Syr thought, trying to comprehend the immense amount of wealth he had at his disposal. With such wealth he could outright buy the loyalty of almost all the mercenary companies of Halkeginia and still have immense amount of wealth at his disposal.

Bell was floored at hearing the amount, his mind trying to come up with ways to spend such a huge sum of money and he was still coming short.

'And Hyoudou said that he wanted me to buy everything till there was not a coin left in his vault.' Bell recalled that particular bit of info. 'With this much money I could outright buy out Tristan and still have enough money left to buy out the whole of Rustan and Orceanes.'

Sure he could not buy an entire nation overnight but it was the fact that he could that shocked Bell. If he limited himself to simply Germania, Bell was sure that he could easily buy out the whole of Germania barred the Capital and still have enough money to left to buy out quite a lot of estates in other countries.

Going that route Bell would simply be handing over Germania to Hyoudou which as a citizen of Germania was simply not acceptable, which meant that he would have to try to buy properties in other nations, so that Hyoudou's influence does not eclipse that of the Germanian Emperor.

The new properties would also be so large that Hyoudou himself might have trouble controlling them and would keep him busy too or he might resell them which were the best outcome possible. Though if he was able to consolidate his holdings he could get quite a lot of influence too, thus Bell had to make sure that he bought properties that had little value in the long run and come up with suitable reasons for why he had done so.

Bell really did not want to sour his relationship with such a powerful entity, least he is subjugated to his wrath.

"I really hate being a Guild Master." bell sighed rubbing his forehead to ease the phantom headache he was having. Who knew having more money than one had any idea to spend on?

He was really going to have trouble in the coming months.

Looking at Syr, he was really not sure whether he made the right decision assigning her as Hyoudou's advisor but time would tell what would happen next.

###########################

The next few days Bell gave a formal announcement that the guild was looking to buy properties ranging from plots of lands, buildings, farms, vineyards to even estates and everything in between. This offer extended to all even the nobles of both Germania and foreign nations, shocking quite a lot of people in the process.

This offer accompanied by the rumours of an immortal magician who had visited the guild, was more than enough to stir up news in the whole continent.

Bell was not going subtle route at all, he wanted to make Halkeginia fully aware of the new player that was Issei Hyoudou. He felt that such an individual if remained hidden could cause a lot of problems in the future and it was better to give him the spotlight his station demanded of him.

By the end of the allocated months Bell had managed to buy quite a lot of properties, buying out 80% of Rustan, the grand south-western plains and forests of Gomoria and its villages, the mountain ranges of the Alpes and its villages, the port towns of Veina, Heinrich, Sovergn and Balt in the northern coasts, the cities and estates of minor nobles and merchants and the Arden Forests in the south, which when put together was almost a fifth of the whole of Germania.

But that was not all.

In Albion, he had bought the Westwood forests and the small orphanage that was deep inside it, parts of the port city of Roach and the port city of Chelsea. Bell had also bought half the western territories of Tristan and the northern parts of Gallia near the Arden Forests to top it all.

He was able to accomplish this due to the prestige his guild had and the damn good negotiators his employees had become after years of practice. He for once was wishing that he was dealt a bad deal during this time but the prestige of his guild and the negotiation skills of his employees pulled through, as they bought properties after properties from the various nobles and merchants.

In the end combined all these territories were equivalent to the territories the whole of Albion, Tristan and Romania combined. Though now Albion and Tristan were quite smaller in size now, as the nobles of those two countries had foolishly sold quite a lot of property to Issei Hyoudou.

And the vault was still not empty, with still almost 43 million ecus left.

In the two months, Issei Hyoudou had been making visits to check upon the progress of his purchase of properties but Bell got the impression that Hyoudou was not able to grasp the scope of his purchases.

Sure he was surprised when he was notified that he was now the owner of some cities and villages but even though he now owned seven cities, twenty towns and several villages, Issei Hyoudou had seemed too regarded them as quite less and after hearing the amount they cost he even said they were quite cheaper than expected.

Really just how wealthy was he that he was calling several towns and cities that cost hundreds of thousands, with even some costing millions, cheap! Though upon recalling the amount of money Issei had deposited, Bell realised that they were truly quite cheap. It was a good thing that Bell had given quite the generous sum to the owners for their properties or else if he went by the usual route of getting the cheapest price, he would have surely handed half of Halkeginia to Hyoudou on a silver platter.

Hell, he had even gotten Royal Decrees legitimising the ownership of the lands. Somehow he doubted that the Royals knew what they were handing over to the new merchant.

Still at least he had managed to get Halkeginia to focus on Issei Hyoudou for now. Most of the nobles that had sold their properties were demanding to meet Issei, some to pledge their service to him while others wanted to see if they could still retain control over their holdings, even after selling them away, idiots the lot of them.

Bell just hoped that he had not done a big mistake by helping Issei Hyoudou, but that worry was buried under the fact that there was still money to be spent and he was now at his wits end at what to buy.

#############################

In the Royal Court of Tristan, Princess Henrietta was holding what was one of the most attended court session in recent history of Tristan.

The reason for this session being that some of the nobles had foolishly sold their properties for outrageous sums of money and in the process had sold almost Half of Tristan to a Germanian Merchant.

"Now can anyone tell me how in the name of our Founder did this happen?" Henrietta asked her voice low and calm but every noble could hear the fury hidden beneath that calm demeanour.

It was bad enough that she was to be wed to the Emperor of Germania but now having half her country being own by a 'germanian merchant' was a bit too much for her. Just because she was going to marry their Emperor did not mean they do as they wished with her country.

"Your Royal Highness," Duke Marcel, one of the only few nobles that had managed to retain most of his holdings, making him the second most powerful noble in Tristan, next to the de Vallière simply by virtue of having more the second largest holdings, spoke up.

"The Merchant Guild of Germania, a guild of great repute, had made an announcement that they were looking to buy properties both domestic and foreign and had sent missives to all major and minor noble families who were willing to sell their properties to them.

After which they began to negotiate the terms and offered large amounts of money which many minor nobles could not refuse and many major noble houses saw as good deals and began to sell their properties.

During all this they bought every piece of land that could be sold with some being worthless to many nobles due to them being useless like barren lands, marshes, plains and minor villages and holdings of little note at prices that were just too good to refuse. With minor noble houses selling their holdings that they felt were just sucking up their money and were not worth it and the Major noble families selling their holdings that were deemed just too vast for them to govern properly.

Thus before anyone knew the guild had bought out almost entire villages, towns and great tracks of lands that had remained untouched for centuries or were abandoned leading to our current situation." Duke Marcel explained, he by a stroke of luck had failed to get into contact with the guild in time to sell some of his holdings but had been too late as the guild had informed him that they were not interested in buying any new properties anymore. Something about not wanting to anger the Royalty of Tristan, which at first Marcel did not understood but was now seeing what those words meant.

Before he had cursing his luck that he failed to capitalise on such a great opportunity but after finding the scope of the purchases made by the guild and the now vastly decreased holdings of many of his rivals, he was just glad that he had missed out on such wealth.

Sure the other nobles were now vastly wealthier than him now but at least he had some sizable holdings to his name, which could not be said for most of the nobles present.

Were the nobles in questions a bit more mercantile in nature Marcel would have cursed his luck but he knew that they were mostly nobles who were simply greedy, lazy bums, with little to no knowledge about economy or business. Really some of them had even sold mines, farms and areas that were too vital for the economy of Tristan as a whole.

"So they bought small inconsequential properties giving great prices for them, incited the nobles with the lucrative deals and slowly began to buy out properties with greater values further incited the nobility which lead to us being in this position." Henrietta summed up Duke Marcel's explanation.

"Blind greedy fools the lot of you." Henrietta exploded her magic pouring out of her, creating a maelstrom around her and for the first time in their lives, the nobles feared the kind princess. "Do you even know what you have done?!" She said, her words calm and measured hiding her anger, yet her magic showed what she truly felt as it raged around her freezing her throne and creating a miniature blizzard around her.

"While most of the properties may have seemed inconsequential some of them were vital to our economy by virtue of having pre-established trade routes crossing through them, being the sources of rivers to provide water to the realm and being the centres of farms and vineyards.

By your actions now we have not only lost, many old and busy trade routes and roads, face the possibility of the rivers beings cut off robbing us of sources of water, and even risk famine due to shortages of food caused by your reckless selling of the lands. You have effectively crippled Tristan as an economic nation, effectively putting the sovereignty of Tristan in danger just to satisfy your greed."

The courtiers paled as they heard the full repercussions of their actions, now fully realising why their calm, passive and kind princess had transformed into a wrathful goddess.

"So give me one reason, one reason why I should not execute the lot of you for Treason against the Realm?" Henrietta asked the nobles, yet none dared to speak up.

They may have acted in greed but none of the nobles had foreseen such consequences and even in their hearts admitted that they had committed treason even unknowingly. Greedy they may have been but even they did not want Tristan to fall to a foreign power and their actions had left it in an extremely vulnerable state. They were now blaming themselves for not seeing what the guild had being trying to achieve.

Many were not simply waiting for their execution by the hands of their princess who in their minds had all right to strike them down where they stood.

"Now please calm down princess, while I admit that the situation is dire it is still not entirely unsalvageable." Cardinal Mazzini said, trying to placate the angry princess. He was really surprised and scared that the princess was showing such abnormal magical might worthy of any square mage worth their name. It seemed everyone had underestimated the princess who had shown that she was still a descendent of their great Founder.

Even now he could feel the cold seeping into his bones and at this rate the princess would kill almost everyone in her anger.

The winds and cold subsided as Henrietta looked to the Cardinal, her expressions stoic and calm yet her eyes were demanding explanations.

Cardinal Mazzini getting the silent command elaborated his words. "You royal highness, while the nobles have sold their properties to the guild, the same properties can be bought back using the same money that they earned, which we can confiscate and add them to the Royal treasury. Even if we failed to buy back all that was sold, the confiscated money would allow us to establish infrastructure around our remaining territories and stabilize our economy."

"You do know that is just a short term solution Cardinal Mazzini." Henrietta pointed out. "Most of our remaining territories are those that either belongs to the nobles or to the Thorne. While I have no calms freeing some of the crown lands for the endeavour, they would still not be enough and we would have to seize some of the remaining holdings of the nobility to truly turn Tristan back into an economic power."

Her reasoning was sound and pointed out the flaws in the Cardinal's plans but the Cardinal did not back down nor seemed angry at being called out on it.

"Then it will be their punishment for the crime of endangering the sovereignty of the Kingdom. Their holdings for the continued survival of Tristan, it is a choice that is plain and clear for all to see." The Cardinal replied as if he was talking about the weather, making many of the present nobles pale at the callousness the Cardinal was showing. The nobles then realised that the Cardinal was angry beyond words, so much that he was now seeing the nobility as lost cause.

With this not only their new found wealth was gone but now their holdings and very titles as nobles were in dire jeopardy.

"I would like to buy back the properties first, Cardinal and only if it results in failure are you free to implement that plan of yours, Cardinal." With that Henrietta dismissed the court, the nobles scrambling away, in a bid to get back to their estates and plan for the coming storms.

When the last of the nobles were gone, Henrietta slumped in her throne, her magic dissipating as the temperature slowly return to normal.

"Cardinal Mazzini." She asked the old Cardinal and her teacher, "Why did mother allow this? Why did she sign the decree?"

"You know why, princess, the queen still grieves for your father and no longer cares for the working of the realms and the purchases were so small and numerous in many areas that she might have missed them." The Cardinal explained, though knew that they were but hollow words.

"You know it is not true Cardinal." Henrietta said, "With this act mother has shown that she no longer cares what happens to Tristan, no longer cares that with this Tristan would be annexed by Germania and she no longer cares that she has ensured that there would be no Tristan for her descendants to inherit and be forever only exist in the pages of history.

She no longer cares, Cardinal, she no longer cares." The princess was on the verge of tears and the Cardinal knew just how much the Queens action had affected the princess. Cardinal Mazzini knew that if the Queen had willed it, she could have stopped the situation from escalating so far, yet her inactions and her decree which while normal had all but ensure that Tristan would not survive the end of the Century.

Their economy and trade routes was the only thing that allowed Tristan to bounce back from the wars with Germania and Gallia and now with those gone and weakened, Tristan could no longer recover quickly enough to defend itself from an invasion. And even if it did survive another invasion the toll would be too much to bear and collapse the remaining economy into the ground.

Cardinal Mazzini sighed, he knew just how bad it was for Tristan and the very sovereignty of Tristan was at stake.

There were some ways to protect the sovereignty of Tristan but it was not a path that he wanted the princess to tread upon, she was already in a similar position and the Cardinal knew how much she hated it. Still it was his duty to the crown that he at least should provide the princess with the option, no matter what his personal reasons maybe.

"Princess there is another path we could take." The Cardinal began, and he felt his heart contract in pain upon seeing the hope in the princess eyes.

"We ask the Vallière to sell some of their lands to the Germanian Merchant but ask them to do with the stipulation that the merchant would have to marry one of their daughters, become a noble of Tristan and swear allegiance to the throne. This would effectively not only expand the territories of Tristan but also bind the merchant and his vast wealth to the Tristan." Cardinal Mazzini said, laying down his plans before the princess. It had many flaws but the original plan was vastly different than the one he had purposed but one that was more damming to the princess and Tristan as a whole.

"You know that I can't ask them to go through with that Cardinal." Henrietta said not wanting to order the Vallière, who were a second family to her, to basically sell their daughter to a foreigner, all for the good of the realm.

"But if you did ask them in the name of the realm, they would comply." Cardinal Mazzini simply replied. He knew he was being more than cold hearted asking the princess to consider this option but in order to secure Tristan he had to ask her to do so. "Their loyalty is unquestionable, princess, and if you ask them to do so they would happily comply. And while I may sound callous, the reality is that they are already going to be wed to other nobles for further gains, at least this way the marriage they would enter would be for the betterment of the realm."

"You are being callous Cardinal. Even if I did give them the order and they complied who is to say that this decision would not break their loyalty to the crown and with the added territories they would gain, why should they follow my rule and not overthrow me and take over Tristan, after all the Vallière are still a cadet branch of the Royal Family and still legal candidates to the throne.

And this is simply not factoring in how the Germanian Merchant would act. So cardinal, what makes you think that they would not only comply but also remain loyal to me?" Henrietta asked the cardinal, she did not ask him because they were all valid reasons but she asked him why them, why the Vallière of all the nobles?

"You do know that the Vallière are and will always remain loyal to Tristan, just as well as I do, princess. They motto "Loyalty above All" are not just words but a way of life to them, which is further strengthen by Karin's Rule of Steel. They won't revolt or rebel and in time would they would turn the barbarian merchant into a Noble of Tristan."

"Careful now, your bias is showing Cardinal. The barbarian in question is also the owner of Half of Tristan too. So he might be insulted at that title."

The Cardinal simply scoffed and said "A man who makes a princess cry is nothing but a barbarian in my eyes. The fact that he is from Germania just goes to show how uncivilised their lot is."

The princess could not help but laugh at the reply even the cardinal joined her in her laughter. Both enjoying the brief moment of normalcy, knowing full well the future would be filled with great difficulty.

############################

"So Bell have you managed to spend all the money I gave you?" I asked the rabbit guild master, I would have thought that it would have been easy to spend such money and I was expecting to be hounded by Bell asking for more but for some reason Bell said that he still had not spent all the money and was taking his time.

"No, I still have forty three million left." Bell replied with a sigh. I had been a bit surprised at the conversion rate but Gnarl had told me that such things were to be expected.

"You really are a bad spender Bell." I could not help but retort, really even though he had told me I was the owner of several cities, towns and villages. I knew that they were quiet small in the middle ages and the medieval period and thus knew that they could not be that big in size if they cost only a few million ecus, really none of them ran into double digits which made me think that Carnell was only buying run down towns and cities. The villages I was sure while could be a regular sized one, were no more than then houses or so, with how cheap they were.

I thus did not trust him much when he said he bought me mountains and plains and forests, they must have been some small hills, a barren plot of land and a spooky forest. Bell was a merchant and I knew that I should not take what he says for face value. These were after all the guys who were the progenitors of modern businessmen and salesmen.

So I bet that he was simply running out of worthless places to buy for me. But I was not going to let him do that, I was going to get my money's worth out of it.

"Bell, I am going to tell you this, spend the left over money. I don't care how, just spend it, even if you have to buy half of Germania, or the whole of Albion and Tristan do it, buy them but spend the damn money. I want to get down and start my business already, so buy the damn properties already." Really it was already five months now and I was still stuck in the initial stage, I had thought that once I was able to take care of the initial stages and spending a month or two, I could pop back home and rest bit, go to school and worry about my homework to escape the workload of my business.

But instead I was stuck waiting for Carnell to buy the damn properties which I knew were of not much use to me. I was becoming sorely tempted to simply say screw the whole plan and go home, but due to the incident in the vaults I knew I could not just get up and disappear either.

I was really getting bored of simply training back in the island. Heck I was even able to unlock the strange red gauntlet too and had managed to learn two of its simple but OP abilities.

One was **[Boost],** which effectively multiplied all my basic stats by two and was stackable in nature, which gave me exponential power. The fact that it had no limits to what it could boost and could stack till infinity made it one of the most broken buff spells I had come across. I also managed to use it to increase specific stats like magical resistance, HP regen, MP regen, magical power etc. after which I found that if after some really long sessions of practice these stats could be folded into the normal boosts meaning that apart from my physical defences and strength these stats would also increase whenever I boost.

So far my normal [ **Boost** ] double my physical strength, endurance, defences, stamina and my magical stats like my MP pool, regen and overall magical power, I was thus now aiming for HP regen and magical resistance and defences.

The only downside of this skill was that it had a 10 second cooldown and so far I could only stack 13 times before it reset the values. But well due to its exponential increase in power 13 was enough for now.

The second ability of the red gauntlet was **[Dragon Shot]** , a simple spell that fires a bolt of energy at a target. It was really that simple, but it was broken because the power of the spell depended on how much power the user could pour into the spell with having virtually no upper limit. This combined with **[Boost]** , allowed me to blow up entire mountains in a single shot without breaking a sweat. And I had done it when I was boosted only six times when I fire that shot, that too without overloading it.

With just these two skills I knew that the gauntlet was a damn cheat item. Just who in the world design such a broken item with such broken skills!

Apart from that I had been practicing portal magic with gnarl and had somewhat been able to master **[World Door]** and manage to get a time ratio of 1 day = 6 days, between the two sides. While that was good progress I was still aiming for the 1 hour = 1 year conversion, only then I could say that I was proficient with the spell. Because honestly Gnarl said that a master of the spell could do a time conversion of 1 second to 10 thousand years, which was way out of my reach and a bit useless too, as it would mean long hours of boredom.

In between I had even decided which characters I would base my next two Heroic Servant minions upon.

I had chosen Nanoha as Caster because seriously friendship beams for the win.

Then I chose Chu Chulainn as Lancer, because honestly he was not only a badass and the first lancer of the fate series and he was also awesome bro.

The rest I was undecided as they were quite a lot of candidates but I was already low on resources and even with the mines I knew that I would take a huge hit to my stockpile just by creating these two minions.

Thus I really need to set up my business as soon as possible and start racking in the money and resources through it. And yet due to Carnell I was really getting stalled.

"Just do it Carnell, just spend the damn money and I'll be happy." I said, giving my goodbyes and headed back to the island.

But upon reaching the port, which had grown quite a lot, I realised I was feeling homesick, so I decided to head home for now and enjoy a few days of class.

"Gnarl, I'm heading home." I informed Artoria and Gnarl who looked quite surprised at my declaration. Changing my clothes, I opened a portal with one thought in mind.

'Kuoh I coming home.'

#########################

AN: Before anyone starts anything, I have to say this to get out of my mind. Is this story worthy to be uploaded on Space Battles? I am a bit hesitant to upload it there as I don't think it matches the quality at all.

Also, Issei does not understand Economy AT ALL!

Now to understand what went on this chapter, some economic knowledge is needed to explain the intricacies of how really good Bell Carnell and his merchants were and how damn rich Issei is compared to Halkeginia and how much of an idiot and a fool he is to look down upon the genius of Bell Carnell and his guild.

Currently Issei is having the modern world mentality, where while million is a big amount it is not the biggest with billions and trillions lording over them.

To Issei he is thinking that an ecu is the local equivalent of yen, namely he is thinking one ecu is like one yen for the people of Halkeginia, even though he knows ecus are made of gold. He is currently under the impressions that 'Hey since this is a fantasy world gold coins must be common as hell', which while applicable to some worlds is not applicable to Halkeginia, as it still has bronze and silver coins below the gold coins, ecu.

Here in Halkeginia, a person earning 10 ecus per year is considered to be well off, with the average job mostly earning one to three ecus PER YEAR. Even nobles earning 1000 ecus per year are considered quite wealthy with the top nobles earning a max of several hundred thousand ecus but never reaching millions unless they are from a long line of nobles with very deep pockets.

Thus when Carnel says that he bought properties ranging several million ecus, he really means that they were super expensive and were one of the best properties in the market. Not to mention Carnell bought out Rustan too and several cities of that calibre which are the Halkeginia equivalent of New York, Paris and other major cities, so they are big, really big purchases.

What Carnell is saying when he bought Rustan using several million ecus, it is like he is saying he bought NY using several trillion dollars but Issei is viewing it as buying NY with several million yen, which while expensive is still cheap and thus Issei is looking down on the value of the cities as a whole.

In fact back in the day nations use to sell and buy territories that cost only several millions not hundreds of millions. Thus it is not out of the realms of possibility that Issei could buy out the entirety of Halkeginia. But he is saving his resources for his minions.

Carnell among the midst of buying these properties has also ensured that he had kept the market stable and not pushed the prices up or down, which any economist would tell you that it is a damn hard thing to do and such an influx of money should have really collapse parts of the market but Carnell managed to successfully avoid that.

Give the Rabbit a damn Golden Carrot for his effort will you.

Damn this was a long Author's Post note but I really wanted to let the readers know what went on in this chapter and what it actually entailed.

Next chapter should, Issei takes a break, meets some friends and finally starts his business and the rest of the Tristan tries to solve their crisis.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

It was a bright sunny day in Kuoh, the sun was bright, the birds were chirping, and I finally going back to school after spending months in a remote island in another universe. Yeah it was just as crazy as it sounded.

Still I was back in Kuoh and while the classes were boring as usual, I was glad to be back in a room filled with boys and girls around my age and not being stuck on an island surrounded by animals and plants that could kill you in seconds, crazy mad-scientists who had one crazy idea after another and were asking my approval, necromancers who like to scare the living hell out of everyone using skeletons and ghosts, dragons who…wait that list is too damn long!

I really did the right thing to get away from the craziness of the island for a while. Gnarl and Artoria were good enough to manage for a few days and I was only thinking about spending a few weeks before going back which would be some 2-3 days back in the island due to the time conversion.

In the meantime I was going to buy some games, go to the arcade, hang out with my friends, do my homework and generally live the life of a normal teenage high school student.

During lunch time I wandered around the school a bit. To be honest I had become a bit unfamiliar with the layout of the school due the long months I spent on the island that had made me forget quite a bit about the school

Now that I think about it I almost spend a year in that world, which was enough time to make me forget some parts about the school. It was a good thing I wrote some notes about the recent events or else I would really have been lost.

Well at least I knew where the kendo club and the tennis courts were. I can still feel the beating they gave me way back when I peeped on them. Ah good times, though the two assholes did not even let me get a decent view and left me alone to get the blame.

Speaking of the two assholes, I found that they were curiously avoiding me, stalking me even. I wonder why?

Well I was not in the mood to deal with them today, especially when all I could remember about them was that they abandoned me to face the wrath of the girls they peeped on. Really why was I friends with them again?

I'm sure there was some reason but my brain could not think of one at the moment and I was not in the mood to think about it too. So for now I ignored them and began to familiarise myself with the school again.

Going through the corridors and wings of the school, I realised that the school had an awful lot of clubs, ranging from the typical sports club, the literary club, the token occult club, the high class music clubs to the outright exotic clubs like the cooking appreciation clubs, the history compilation club, the historical cooking research club and the Table Top games club just to name a few, and that was not mentioning the totally bizarre clubs like the Onmyouji papercraft club.

Thinking about my school again, I recalled that it was only last year that it had become Co-ed, so either the boys had gotten permission to open quite a lot of clubs or the girls of Kuoh Academy were always this weird and had established the clubs themselves.

I honestly didn't know which was the less crazy option, the fact that the boys were given free rein to establish clubs or the fact that the girls of this academy were a bit crazy and weird in the head, making Kuoh Academy a crazy rich girls' academy.

Truly, genius, success and eccentricity went hand in hand.

During my small walk, I noticed that I had gained a bunch of stalkers. The majority of them being girls with some boys in the mix, some of whom I recognised were from the Student Council if my memory served me right.

Really why were they stalking me all of a sudden? And did they really think that I could not notice them? Wait are they still after me about that incident of me accidentally walking in on them when they were changing? It was so long ago that I almost forgot about it, though granted from their perspective it was only a few days or a week at the most.

Still I ignore them, if they were curious about me let them be. It was not like they were harming anyone.

"The library?" I muttered out loud as I read the sign of the large hall, it was quite massive almost comparable to one of the main halls. Well that was Kuoh Academy for you, grandeur that was worthy of their prestige.

"I wonder what kind of books I would find." With how prestigious the school was, I bet that the library had a lot of books on medieval culture and modern industry, books that would help me in my endeavours in Halkeginia.

I could not help but smile as I thought how much of a boon the library would prove. It would really save me the trouble of buying the books from the market and with the money saved I could buy some new games. I think I had a duplication spell which I could use to create copies of the books too.

Yeah this really was a jackpot for me.

With a grin on my face, I entered the library curious to find the treasures hidden in the pages of the books it held…

###########################

Reya Kusaka was confused. She was very, very confused.

The reason for her confusion was due to the presence of one boy who was playing havoc with her heart, Issei Hyoudou.

Now she was intimately familiar with the boy due to being his classmate and being part of the Student Council and had personally monitored his detentions more than a few times. And who could forget the incident of him walking in on them when they were changing in the Council Room. Not to mention Reya had been the one closest to door and Issei had gotten quite the view of her body.

Damn Momo and her prank. It was really embarrassing and mortifying really.

Going back to her current problem, the problem was the Issei Hyoudou she knew and had become familiar with over the past few months, was an immature perverted boy with no common decency to shut up about his perversion and had little to no respect or care about the fairer sex.

Yet the Issei Hyoudou she saw today in class was far different than the one she had seen yesterday.

She had known that Issei Hyoudou was acting strange for the past week, coming to class looking tired as hell, though that did not stop him from his usual antics and generally looking lethargic for the most part.

Today he looked quite energetic and fresh, his pervious fatigue being absent from his frame and he was filled with a more energetic and lively gait.

But Reya noticed that Issei Hyoudou while looking energetic had a more laidback demeanour to him today, he looked restrained but it did not looked like he was forcefully restraining himself out of some sort of forced compulsion like she had seen him do so many times before. But, it was like he was naturally subconsciously restraining himself from acting out like he usually did, and that made him look more 'mature'.

Reya was not the only one that had noticed this and there were girls and even some boys that were now interested in the sudden changes that Issei Hyoudou was displaying. It was this sudden maturity that was making her heart and the heart of many girls conflicted.

It was no secret that despite being a perverted voyeur, Issei Hyoudou was one of the nicest boys in the whole damn school and was too damn honest to a fault, it was due to his extreme honesty and sincerity that he was labelled a pervert, as he was honest and sincere about his passion for the female anatomy and made no effort to hide it.

Looking past that tiny bit, one could say that Issei Hyoudou was an average boy with some good traits that could endear him to the female population, but due to his perversion those traits were ignored and many girls did not think that it was worth the effort to become his girlfriend.

But Reya had a feeling that might change as his now more mature look had also given Issei a degree of cool look too.

It was nowhere near the coolness of Kiba Yuuto or some of the more pretty boys and princes of the school but it was just enough to make girls interested in him and if he kept his perverted behaviour in check than by the end of the week Issei Hyoudou would be getting multiple confessions or love letters in the least.

Reya knew that she might be one of those girls who would confess to Issei.

It was not like love at first sight but the maturity Issei displayed had prompted Reya to think about him in a more positive light and the more she thought about it the more she had a feeling she was growing a crush on him.

It really scared her how an idiot like Issei was easily capturing her heart. It would take a long time for her to really fall in love with him, if she did at all, but for now to temper her crush on him she was going to keep observing him. She was not stalking him, Honest!

If he was changing and not being a pervert any more than she might consider confessing to him, Issei was much more approachable in her eyes than Kiba Yuuto, who while was friendly all round was not the most social person and was in fact a bit cold and uncaring of others, especially girls. This had made Reya wary of confessing her admiration for the blond knight and this was not factoring in the fact that the Vice President Tsubaki was also after him.

Reya was still unsure whether she was in love or simply had a crush on the breast loving idiot but well she was a simple high school girl and such kind of feeling were supposed to be normal. It was the fact that it was Issei Hyoudou of all people that was igniting such feelings that was creating a conflict in her heart, not to mention she still held some admiration for the blond knight in her heart too.

Why was love so much complicated? It looked so easy in the novels she read and not this complicated mess of feelings that were brewing in her heart.

Reya decided that she would simply observe for now and see what course of action she should take. She was not stalking him, damn it!

A small part of her hoped that Issei was back to his perverted self so that she could dismiss his existence and keep pinning for the blond prince, for if he kept up his current behaviour, Reya feared that her crush on him would simply keep growing.

'High school crushes sure are complicated.' Reya thought as she followed Issei into the library. 'Hurry up and go back to being a pervert Hyoudou. Stop trying to usurp Kiba's place in my heart.' Reya raged as she saw Issei Hyoudou being polite almost courteous towards the librarian, then going towards the medieval section of the library after thanking the librarian.

Following him, Reya noted that Issei had a more alert and driven look to him, a sense of joy and passion emitting from him that made him look more confident and overall happy and cheerful. It was an odd combination upon seeing which Reya could not help but think.

'Why does he look like he just found a new peeping hole?'

Reya knew that Issei only had that expression when he was determined to peep on the girls and now that she thought about it, it had a certain cool factor to it. 'I guess the context really ruined the effect.'

Still Reya wondered, just why was Issei Hyoudou suddenly interested in medieval economics and medieval history?

Guess that was another mystery that she would have to solve.

###############################

Back in Halkeginia, Gnarl was facing a different kind of problem. His new master in his hurry to take a break had accidentally forgotten to properly adjust the time dilation properties of the portal and had ended up with a 3 hours to 1 hour dilation.

It was not that bad per say, but Gnarl knew that his master would be out for at least a week and even Gnarl acknowledge that his master needed the mental rest as the mental fatigue had been piling up for some time now.

The problem was from the correspondence they had established with the guild, a message had come asking the urgent presence of his master for some official matters.

Gnarl really did not want to recall his master yet as he needed some time off from all this yet he knew that the meeting could not be ignored too.

Bell Carnell had not being so forthcoming as to what the meeting would pertain about but Gnarl guessed that it would probably have to do something about the properties and territories that were in his master's name.

Looking at the territorial map given by Bell Carnell, Gnarl had to sigh at the very small amount of territories that were in his master's name. The territories Issei Hyoudou now controlled were not even half the size of the first ancient kingdoms of the Original Overlord and it was a far cry from the multi-universal empire of the later Overlords.

'Baby steps I guess.' Gnarl mused, as he planned out how to govern this small territory. 'Don't want to overwhelm the poor boy, yet.'

It was going to take a lot of effort to even make these small territories prosperous and bring them up to a satisfactory standard. They would have to set up a lot of infrastructure, set up local militia forces, train and equip them with proper gears, set up suitable governors and mayors, create an efficient bureaucracy and lots more.

It would take a lot of work and Gnarl knew that he still had much to teach the young Overlord about the running of an empire.

"And these territories seemed to be a good way to start doing just that." Gnarl muttered looking at the map of the Continent of Halkeginia.

'It really is strange how the rich merchants of Germania as like pseudo-rulers and kings, acting as vassals of the Emperor of Germania.' Gnarl mused, thinking about the Germania constitution as a whole.

Really there were so many loopholes in that constitution that were being actively used by not only the merchant and the nobles but were in fact encouraged by the king and the royal family too.

There were even laws pertaining to the declaration of independence from Germania, with even merchants having the power to declare their privately own territories independent from Germania, but due to the might and power of the Royal Military which no merchant could hope to match, they did not dare to declare independence from Germania.

Past examples had shown what happened to such merchants and their families.

Gnarl knew that the battle between the Germanian Army would be a good way to test the new minion forces and they had enough resources to drown them in numbers, even though the sheer quality of the troops would have long won the day.

It was a good option to keep now if his master ever gets tired of playing merchant though the line between king and merchant was quite blurred in Germania, so it was a mote point anyway.

Now what to do about that meeting?

Gnarl could go by himself and attend the meeting but he did not feel like it and Artoria did not have much training in the ways of politics, diplomacy and statesmanship, so sending her might result in some bad deals which might result in a war.

'So sending Artoria seems like a good choice.' Gnarl thought stroking his beard, 'Wars are always good for young Overlords and this might put his name on the map.'

Looking at the remaining territories of Tristan Gnarl could not help but muse and think how he could annex the remaining territories of Tristan, would really patch things up on that end instead of having several spread out pocket territories in Tristan.

'Well the overall economy of Tristan is going to suffer a lot with the recent sales of their territories and Germania and Gallia would be foolish to not take advantage of the situation and press their advantage and try to annex Tristan.' Gnarl thought as he thought about the other two states, 'Albion is in no condition to do anything with the growing civil discontent and the rising possibility of civil war, so they won't be able to help Tristan much.'

'Now, just what can I do to annex Tristan before the other two kingdoms move to do so?' Gnarl thought over the options.

Military conquest was out but not off the table, political pressure would be useless for now as they had little of it, so that left economic and espionage tactics. For now Tristan was slowly being economically crippled with the sales of territories slowly showing their effects and in a few more months would collapse unless they wised up and enact some short term and long term solutions, fast.

''I still can't believe the nobles of Tristan were so short sighted when they sold their lands and holdings. Really it's like they did not pay heed to the consequences of their actions that the kingdom would have to shoulder." Such nobles were either killed off at a young age or recruited into the army to be trained properly before they could cause much damage back in the empire.

"Hump, guess Tristan's loss is our gain." Gnarl said, smiling savagely as he thought about the various ways he could pressure the Royalty of Tristan. "I wonder if I can find a good Lady for my Lord. It is always good to get a Queen early to keep things like sex drive and love in check. It also gives the Overlord quite a lot of time to corrupt said queen to his side, though I guess Lord Issei might object to that as he seems fixated on creating a Harem."

Gnarl could not help but sigh in exasperation as he thought about his lord's dreams and goals, "Well at least I have advised him to have some parameters to limit his Harem or else I have no doubt he would end up like Solomon and his Thousand Concubines and Wives. He really seemed to be greedy like that."

Still it was not like anything he had seen and it was pretty tame in comparison to some of the Overlords he had served like Lord Hadrian and Lord N.U. now those were true raging perverts as they did not even seemed to discriminate between gender or species, while his current lord was simply fixated on Human Females of specific characteristics.

Plotting and scheming Gnarl happily hummed an old tune as he went about his tasks.

"Through the warp and far away~

~through the warp and far away~"

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While Gnarl plotted and schemed to annex Tristan, back in the Royal Palace of Tristan Henrietta was putting her own plots into motion to save her kingdom.

"Have the invitations sent out?" Henrietta asked Cardinal Mazzini as she looked to the arrangement of what would probably the most important ball in the history of Tristan.

"Yes, your highness, the invitations have been sent out and our friends in Germania have replied that the young Merchant would be attend the ball." The cardinal replied, "All that is left now is to wait and watch and prepare ourselves for the fallout."

While Henrietta did not like it at all there was nothing she could do in such a situation.

"Wait and watch, huh?" The princess said as she looked towards the woman who would possibly have the power to dictate the future of not only Tristan but Halkeginia as a whole. 'I guess it is fitting that the Vallière who always were great bringers of change for Tristan would now change the landscape of Halkeginia as a whole.'

Off to the side said woman in question had only one thing going on in her mind.

'I just hope that Germanian Brute does not run away like all my other fiancés'

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AN: I really wanted to put more into this chapter but I found the later parts to be more suitable for a whole other chapter.


End file.
